Thringformation

Who am I? John Meredith Thring and I live in Yorkshire, England.       My e-mail address is: john@thring.co.uk.

What do I do? I was a Consulting Engineer specialising in legal work and computer aided engineering until I retired last year. I still consider myself to be an Engineer, of course. You may still find my CV etc. by visiting some old clone of my business website at http://www.thring.co.uk. However, I have a great interest in the history of the Thring family, and have registered a One Name Study in the names Thring, with Brouncker and Sieveking as subsidiary interests, with the GOONS ("Guild of One Name Studies", of course!). If you are interested and we can find a way of transmitting the family tree to you, you will be able to work out where my family and I fit into it for yourself. My other great obsessions are restoring and rallying vintage cars, building garages to keep them in, and restoring and repairing clocks.

Statistics. I have so far logged the data of 1009 Thrings and their relatives, with 307 mariages into a computer system, covering eighteen generations going back to 1498. Would you be interested to know that the average life expectancy is 62.9 year? The average number of children is 3, the average age of marriage is 30, there are only 8 multiple marriages (sequential!) but none of more than two wives and the largest number of children born to any one couple is 12.

Origins. The earliest Thring seems to be a Robert de Thring who is mentioned in the Rotuli Hundredorum in 1273 as residing in Kent. Then there is William Thyring, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, who was chosen by Parliament as one of the Commissioners to pronounce the sentence of deposition on Richard ll in 1340. In the late 16C, Thrings start to appear up and down the Wylye valley, running WNW from Salisbury to Warminster in Wiltshire. So far, all the Thrings I can trace back as far as the 18C have originated in or near this valley.

Meaning. One origin of the name could be from Dreng, a Saxon word meaning a farmer who held a small parcel of land from his feudal overlord by service as a mounted messenger when needed, or by training a horse or a dog for his Lord. This appears to be in conflict with "de Thring", above, which sounds decidedly Norman but could mean "from Tring" perhaps. Another derivation could be from the Middle English verb to thring meaning to thrust, crowd or force one’s way.

What can you do for me? Assuming that you have Thring (or Brouncker or Sieveking) connections and/or interest, send me as much factual information as you can about the Thrings of whom you know. Dates of birth, marriage, death, names of spouses, relationships to others, jobs or professions, addresses, anecdotal information etc. Keep me updated on hatch, match and despatch. And copy this page to any others who might be interested.

What can I do for you? Enter your data into my system. Try to fit you into my tree. Send you my information, preferably in electronic form. I am afraid that I have only the time to enter those who bear or bore the Thring name, so I am not entering the children of Thrings who change their names on marriage, but I am entering their spouses (however, when I send you my data you can, of course, add all such other data yourself).

Data Format.  I am now using Family Tree Maker 2011 (website at www.familytreemaker.com), which seems excellent. I can send all my data to you in GEDCOM format (developed by the Mormons), if you have any other genealogical software that will load this format - most do, but there do seem to be different versions of GEDCOM and some lack of compatibility. If forced, I can send it to you as pdf file, but it is dauntingly large. Please send me an A4 stamped and addressed envelope, and a writable USB chip if you want it in electronic form.

Victorian Ladies.   My sister has written a very interesting and informative treatise on five of our female Victorian forebears and their parents, husbands, siblings and children. You will find this at Victorian Grandmothers.

 

 

John Thring                            

(back to home page)