About The Briggs, Basketts and Coppingers
Please sign in to see more. Briggs, Baskett and Coppinger are the main lines I am tracing. I have registered the surnames BASKETT and BRIGGS with the Guild of One-Name Studies http://www.one-name.org. The Coppinger branch has been well researched by John Coppinger(deceased) and several others.
It took me many years to find our living cousins in the UK. My mother Ellen and I would read over old family letters most written in the 1930’s. We wrote often to those old addresses, to no avail. Finally I contacted the Salvation Army Missing Persons Office and asked if they could help find our cousins. The Salvation Army is more than happy to help reunite families and on their request I filled in a form, paid a fee, then I sat back to play the waiting game once more. To my surprise within two weeks I received a phone call from an Officer of the Salvation Army saying they had found Bernard Briggs and his sister Margaret and that our English cousins were very happy to be found and would be writing to me immediately. My husband and I travel to the UK, Scotland and other European destinations on an annual basis and during these trips have met with our cousins living in Hampshire and Nottingham and have contact with other cousins in Wiltshire and Kent. Cousin Carol (Nottingham) has for many years researched our COPPINGER line and has kindly presented me with a photograph of our mutual great-great grandparents, William & Ellen Baskett (nee Coppinger). The family group photo taken in 1897-1898 most likely in Ryde, Isle of Wight. Cousin Carol is concentrating on both the NUTTY and COPPINGER branches and has been a great help to me, always sharing what information she finds.
The Coppinger branch has been traced back to King Edward the 1st (aka Longshanks). John Coppinger was part of the Court of Henry V11 and must have been considered a worthy person in the court, because he was granted a bolt of cloth to make mourning clothes when Henry V11 died. John was also with the court of Henry V111 and his wife Catherine of Aragon and is known to have been present at the historic event "The Field of the Cloth of Gold" (see link below). In December 2003 I had a very brief visit to their old haunt "All Hallows Hoo" near Sheerness, Kent.
My earliest records of the Basketts' are found on the Isle of Wight, Hampshire. They migrated to Sheerness, Kent in the early 1850's. I am tracing the origin of their surname & whereabouts prior to their settled on the IOW. Hence I have registered the surname BASKETT with the Guild of One-Name Studies (GOONS).
The birth records of our great-great-grandfather Thomas Briggss (a blacksmith) born about 1830 is still to be uncovered. Unfortunately, his mother's name is not on his marriage certificate & this makes much more difficult to match him up with one of the many thousands of Thomas Briggs found in the various records. Thomas's wife Maria Richards and her family originated in the Plymouth area of Devon and migrated to Kent about 1850. Sadly Thomas died suddenly aged 24yrs, just three months after their marriage and Maria aged 22yrs, was a bride, a widow and a few weeks pregnant all within three short months. Maria did not remarry until 1885 when she married Dr. Edward Swales, Sheerness, Kent (he was born in Helmsley,a vilage in the Yorkshire Dales). I have been lucky enough to obtain photos of her parents Maria and Thomas Richards (a blacksmith), and her brother Edward Charles Richards, taken in 1866. The photos were sent by Margaret Campbell nee Briggs, daughter of Frank Briggs. Despite her age and illness Margaret, who sadly, died last year (2008) aged 87yrs, learnt to use a computer and would email me on a regular basis. Frank’s son Bernard Briggs is living in Hampshire.
Books Printed: Briggs & Baskett: I am currently re-writing the book I put together some years ago along with another book titled Laidlaws & Lindsay – Lanarkshire to Sydney.
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