Acknowledgements: Without whom this Family History would never have been discovered!

• To Wato (another Ken Watling) a real character and sadly no longer with us.
  He spent many hours transcribing all 'The Watling' records at Somerset House and then went back as he realised that 'the H' was not a separate family! This is how he did it!
• To Ann Dunne and her mum who also transcribed everything W(h)atling and shared freely.
• Tessa Barker who convinced me to follow 'the vincents'.
• To Lee-Ann Beer who also helped me with a great deal of info on W(h)atlings right at the beginning

You can access the W(h)atling database for free here: on Roger Watlings site

First The Elusive'H'

Spelling in 'ancient times' , particularly before the printed word , was very much down to the individual scholar.
And scholars they were because the majority of the population were illiterate.
Only the clergy and some academics could read and write.
So whenever a name was written down, at hatchings, matchings and despatchings for instance, the way the name was said was usually how it was written.
So, Wortlin, Watelin,Wasling and many many more versions can be found.

So what's an 'H' . Our dear friend Wato put it down to the Parish priest partaking of too much communal wine and so some of us received an 'H'.

It's actually more likely that when printers standardised our spelling of Wot/Wat to What?

So the lesson is ignore the spelling . It is really irelevant!

Henry – Who do I think You Are?
First there is the Vincent Puzzle? You can find out my evidence for following this line when you link to Henry 1777- 1844

Then there is the marriage puzzle? Did Henry 1801 - 1877 marry Mary Sharman or Maria Knights or perhaps both?
Like all good detective stories the answers to these puzzles can be found by following the evidence.
Please feel free to help me unravel the mysteries. Contact Ken Whatling

Henry Watling (1)
(1777-1844) Henry lived with Elizabeth VINCENT.
He was the second son of James Watling and Elizabeth Warnes .
(I say "lived with" because there is no evidence of their marriage. )
Henry was born and died in Hoxne
and Elizabeth was born in Heigham on 2nd March 1785.
She died in Hoxne on 11th December 1871 (age 81).

In the 1841 census they were living in Stradbroke. They had 9 children 4 boys and 5 girls.

More Details HERE

Henry WATLING (2)
(1801-1877)
(aka Vincent & sometimes Vinson) Henry was born in Stradbroke in 1801 he married Mary Sharman as Henry Vinson
on 28th October 1823 at Stradbroke Parish Church.
Mary was born in Haughley Suffolk in 1794 Henry's wife Mary is almost certainly Mary SHARMAN but she could be his second wife?
There is evidence of a marriage to Maria Knights but evidence from Stradbroke Baptist Church seems to confirm Mary Sharman as his wife! They lived in Wingfield all their lives apart from a short time in Stradbroke
( a neighbouring village) where they were married in 1823.
In 1824 they were 'Removed to Wingfield'.

More Details HERE

Henry Whatling(3) 1827 -1908

Henry Whatling(3) was born about 1827 in Hoxne (hundred*).
I say about because it changes in almost every census. Henry married Sarah Hales on 24th October 1854
at St Peter and St Paul parish church at Hoxne Suffolk.
They Moved to Norwich in 1857
and again to Birkenhead Wirral in the early 1880's where he died in 1908 age 81.

More Details HERE