HOW IT ALL STARTED
 
From a chance comment and not having any idea how long it would take nor what an obsession it would become this page shows how and why we embarked on the research for the Melton Family History and to the start of our Father to Father Family line.
This Website is dedicated to the loving memory of Hilda and Ted Melton.

The main reason why we decided to research our family history was down to a comment from our Granddad Ted. If memory serves me correct, it was a random conversation and comment from Ted that sparked the whole idea of researching The Melton Family. He had wondered for a long time if the many places that hold our surname in their titles had anything to do with our family or if that was where our family acquired its name.

Places for example Melton Constable a local village close to where we live now, Melton near to Woodbridge on the Ipswich borders in Suffolk and also the famous pie County of Melton Mowbray in Lincolnshire and there are many more such places that hold the Melton name. You have to admit, he did have a point, where did the Melton name come from and how did our family come to hold this name? We discover and list many of these places and give details on our surname later on in pages of this website.

So the journey to discover our Family's history began.
Where do we go? what do we look for? well first call is probably to a local library, although resources for looking up a particular surname are fairly limited, however there are literally dozens of good books on genealogy and heraldry, these books will help to give some ideas on the questions of where? and how? and of course one of the biggest sources for research is the internet. The internet as we now know played a key role. From the huge files we gathered and stored we began to lose space to store them all, papers, birth and death certificates, what do we do with them all and how can we display them to our family and to future generations? It was decided to create a book, a book that we could show our research and what we had discovered, but as our research is an on going project and is continuing all the time with new facts and family lines added almost monthly the book would never be totally finished, No, we needed a way of showing what we had researched so far but also a way we could change and update that information regularly. The Melton Family Web Pages were born.

It was our intention and hope that we could one day present Hilda and Ted with enough information about our family that would have answered Ted's thoughts about the Melton name. Sadly this was not to be.

Hilda Melton passed away on the 26th May 2000

Edward (Ted) Melton passed away on the 12th March 2001
 
TO DATE
 
So far to date we have been able to trace back as far as 1772 and to a small village in Norfolk called Topcroft.
This is where we begin our Father to Father line of our family tree, Tracing back from 1772 right through to our present new generation of Meltons


William and Maria Melton married in St Margaret's Church Topcroft (pictured) on 28th July 1805,
five months previous to this date Maria (nee Housego) gave birth to their son William Jnr on 15th Feb 1805.
Unfortunately details of William Snr have proven to be very scarce previous to the marriage, however,
based on his age when he died in 1845, we estimate William to have been born in 1772, but this was not in Topcroft,
and we believe not even in Norfolk.

The Village of Topcroft features heavily in our research, so much so that we created a site within our website to feature this tiny village. Please click the church photograph to be taken to those pages.

We know that Maria was born on the 11th December 1783, she was the daughter of William and Elizabeth Housego
( nee Leech) of Hempnall Norfolk.
After the birth of William Jnr, William and Maria went on to have a further seven children,
they are as follows in order of birth: John James Maryanne Nathanael Nathaniel (notice the spelling)
George and Sarah. On all records William is shown as an agricultural labourer,
it appears he spent all his married life in Topcroft. William was buried
in the churchyard of St Margaret's Church on 28th December 1845,
Maria had also been buried there on 25th April 1837.

It the next Line we turn our attentions to George Melton Son of William and Maria above.

George Melton was born in 1822 in Topcroft. He married Mary Ann Beckett of Wooton on the 19th of October 1844.
To date we only know of two children born to George and Mary, Caroline in 1847 and Morris Myhill Barnabus (yes that was his full name) in1851. Both born again in Topcroft. George Melton passed away in Denton Norfolk a neighbouring village approximately five miles from Topcroft.

So far we have been unable to gather any information on Caroline Melton. To turn to Caroline's Brother, Morris Myhill Barnabus Melton and to rejoin the Father to Father Line we do know that it was Morris that first brought our Melton Line to the city of Norwich and in particular to Lakenham. Morris married Louisa Elizebeth Adams also born in Topcroft in 1844. Morris and Louisa did not marry in Topcroft, their marraige records show that the wedding took place in Lakenham Norwich on 24th November 1872. Louisa unfortunately passed away on 31st May 1873, they had only been married for approximately six months, we do not know the cause of death
Morris then took a second wife, Rebecca Shorten on the 4th September 1876. This Marriage also took place in Lakenham.
Rebecca Shorten was born in 1861 in Sprowston.
Morris and Rebbeca went on to have nine children that we know of, George Daniel born 13th September 1877 (my Great Granddfather)
Mary Anne born 1879, Ellen Emma born 1872, Alice Agnes born 1884, William James born 1887, Albert Arthur born 1890, Arthur born 1891 and twins Gertrude and Leonard born 1898.

George Daniel Melton Born 1877 is our next Father to Father decsendant.
George married Florence Ethel Dungar 22nd January 1910 in Salhouse.
Florence Ethel Dungar was born in Sprowston in 1887.
George and Florence had eight children they were
Edward Leonard (My Granddfather) born in 1916,Lesley, John Barnabus, Cecil, Albert, Grace, Maud Violet and William (Uncle Billy)
 
EDWARD (TED) MELTON
Edward Leonard Melton, Ted to his family and friends, was born on the 9th September 1916
Ted lived all his life in and around the Norwich area, although Ted worked for a few different employers, his main occupation stayed the same, it was that of a painter and decorator.
Ted married Hilda Florence Huggins on the 23rd December 1939.
Ted and Hilda had four sons. Tony (deceased) Derek, Roy and Ivan.
Ted and Hilda celebrated 60 years of marriage shortly before Hilda passed away on 26th May 2000.
Ted passed away not long after on 12th March 2001.
They are together again at St faiths crematorium near Norwich.