Harold Wright and Mary Ann Phillips wedding - Picture taken on a bank of Norton Pool

This is the Home Page of research being conducted by Nigel James Wright on the Genealogy of the Wright Family.

In the Beginning.

I cannot recall what started my interest in my Family Tree. It may have been because of Grandfather James Josiah Robinson, who died in 1981. As a young boy, "Granddad Jim" as I called him, kept me amused with stories of when he was young. I remember "Jim" telling me about his Father who was in the Army, and I can vaguely recall seeing his Wife "Jane" when she was ill, just prior to when she died. I got married, left home and started a family. Life got very busy for me then, obtaining qualifications, buying our first house and raising a Family. It seemed no time at all and " Granddad Jim" had died, I remember thinking, if only I had spent more time with him finding out about his parents and grandparents. I did not even know their names, or where they were buried. Of course, now it was too late.

My Mother in Law Florence Emily Steatham, had a wealth of knowledge about the Steathams and I thought, if I am going to do it, I had better start now. I initially spoke to everyone I could find in the Family, the sooner one speaks to people the better, as when people get older they can tend mix up names and dates. Sometimes the information people give seems to them incidental, but it can sometimes be the missing link to solve a branch of the tree.

My name is Nigel James Wright (James after my grandfather James Josiah Robinson) and I decided from the beginning that as I have two children, Christian and Julia, and when it is finished I would most likely pass it onto them, then I should research both my own and my Wife's, Elizabeth Ann Reynold's Ancestry.

So I have Four distinct Family trees.

My Father John Phillips Wright. Which also includes the Phillips & Stanway Surnames.

My Mother Iris Rose Robinson. Which also includes the Smith & Stringer Surnames.

My Wife's Mother Florence Emily Steatham.

My Wife's Father Kenneth Albert Reynolds. Which also includes the Groucott & Withnall Surnames.


The whole Family tree consists of over 3100 people and the Groucott, Withnall, Stanway and Steatham Surnames are being researched to varying degrees with others in the UK and Internationally Recording Surnames.

Until the Registration and Marriage Acts of 1836 came into operation on 1 July 1837 there was no provision for the central registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales.

Before that date records of baptisms, marriages and burials had been kept in Parish Registers by clergy of the Church of England since Thomas Cromwell's injunctions of 1538.

The earliest registers were generally papers books and few originals now survive. In 1598 Elizabeth I approved a 1597 provincial Constitution of Canterbury which ordered that parchment registers should be kept and that entries from the earlier registers should be copied into them.

Of course in the beginning most of the population could not read or write so the Vicar would write in the records the Surname as he thought it should be spelt, after Civil Registration began in 1937 everyone had the opportunity if they knew how, to spell their Surname as they wished and It is recognised by English common law that a person may assume a new surname (provided that he or she does not do so for any fraudulent purpose) without drawing up any formal record.

Note - If the linkage, say from a parent to child is not defintely proven say by a recorded baptism then the details will be coloured like this :-

Nigel James Wright (1952 - )

I will never include details for anyone that I am not certain in my own opinion is not linked.