This is a blog primarily focused on the family history of my branch of the Backlers.  Inevitably there will be overlaps into connected families and into other branches of the Backler family.

My aunty Betty, who was a keen family historian, gave me her papers recently.  She was unable to continue with her research, as she is now into her 80s.  I have been delving into what she gave me, then adding further research, and it is taking me time to understand everything.

I have just learned that my Aunty Betty sadly died on 20th January 2016.  A couple of weeks previously, I sent her prints of these blog pages and asked her to comment on them and point out any inaccuracies.  As a result of this, I had two conversations with her of about an hour each and I am so glad I did this, because she added a large amount, most of which has been updated in this blog and the rest saved for pages yet to be written.  These calls were the last time I spoke to her and it is fitting that our last conversations were on this topic on which we were both so interested.

My branch of the family seems to be descended from Samuel Backler, a shoemaker in London born in the mid 1700s.  He had a son who was born in Bristol and then descendants moved to Birmingham, Walsall and then Warrington.  My own grandfather moved to Eastbourne and started the extensive East Sussex branch of the family.

I was inspired by the blog backlers.com and Barbara has conducted extensive research into Backlers based in London, Hertfordshire and Northamptonshire.  I have not been able to connect my family to her line, but it makes fascinating reading.

I have also not been able to connect the South Australian line into my family, even though I can trace it back to the UK in Bristol and London.

Finally, there is a strong nucleus of Backlers centred around Haverhill in Suffolk, UK and again I have not been able to make a connection.

It would be great if I could establish a link to any of these other Backler family groups and any help would be gratefully received!

I took the picture that appears at the top of each page, which is a sunset over the tidal creek at Conyer, where I live in north Kent.  Conyer is one of the ten hamlets making up the rural village of Teynham, pronounced Tenham.  It had a silent Y added to avoid confusion with Lenham, as in old script Ts and Ls were often confused, so mail often went astray.

Just one foot note: this is intended to be an historical review of my family tree, ceasing with direct relations or potential direct relations from my generation, so I have avoided detailed mention of partners, children and later descendants of anyone mentioned.  This is because writings about anything current can change, whereas the past is the past.