It’s always nice to get an email from a previously unknown, distantly related, fellow family history researcher. I got one yesterday, about the Howkins/Hawkins family of Willoughby, Warwickshire. They’re one of my more obscure lines, tying into my Collins and Collcutts of Oxford in the 19th century, and I haven’t done much research on them. (I was in Warwickshire this summer, visiting the castle with my family, but it didn’t occur to me at the time that I had ancestors who’d lived nearby….sigh)
Mary Ann Howkins married boatman Charles Curtis at St Peter le Bailey Church in Oxford City on Valentine’s Day 1842 (Oxfordshire, England, marriage certificate, Charles Curtis & Mary Ann Howkins; 1842, Jan-Feb-Mar, Oxford, Vol. 16:129; General Records Office, Kew, copy held by author). They would eventually move to Taplow, Bucks, where Charles ran the Clivedon Ferry across the Thames for many years. But before that, the couple lived in the color canal district of Oxford known as Fisher Row. Mary Prior, in her authoritative work on Fisher Row (Mary Prior, Fisher Row: Fishermen, Bargemen, and Canal Boatmen of Oxford, 1500-1900 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), 239), traced Mary Ann back to the Howkins family of Willoughby, Warwickshire.
There aren’t a lot of Warwickshire genealogy records available online. Using FamilySearch parish extracts, Mary Prior’s book, and a couple online (but unsourced) family trees, I’ve been able to piece together a tentative picture of Mary Ann Howkins’ lineage, but admittedly it doesn’t meet genealogical proof standards and I need to do more research and tackle some proof arguments some day soon. Yesterday’s email from fellow Howkins researcher Jim Ash, helped set me straight one of my Howkins/Hawkins errors – Thanks Jim!! Then, skimming through my Google Reader this morning, I discovered Chris Paton’s blog post, over at British Genes, about some new Warwickshire records now available on Ancestry! Serendipity!!! The new records include:
- Warwickshire, England, Militia, 1776-1825
- Warwickshire, England, Occupational and Quarter Session Records
- Warwick, England, Burial Slips from Warwick Cemetery, 1859-1968
- Warwickshire, England, Bastardy Orders, 1816-1839
- Warwickshire, England, Parish Poor Law, 1546-1904
- Warwickshire, England, Land Tax, 1773-1830
I don’t have a good handle on the Howkins, so I’m not sure if I’ll find them in land records, or the Parish Poor Law! Hoping to spend some time looking for them this weekend 
Am tracing Howkins family at Braunston/Willoughby before my line moved to Oxford. Have a direct line to Thomas Howkins.1762-1832.Mother being Mary Watson.1735 and William Howkins …no dates. Believe they were residents Willoughby.