Following in my father's footsteps

This is my father, Charles Whittaker Roberton, or Charlie to his friends. He was an ever supportive influence in my life, softly spoken, strong, thoughtful and eternally optimistic. He was probably better thought of and more kindly remembered than he realised.

When he retired, my father decided to research his family history. I can remember the trips he took to London and Edinburgh (sometimes with my mum and on other occasions, alone) and holidays spent traipsing through overgrown graveyards in Scotland. He was a searcher, my father, a lover of knowledge, and that applied as equally to his family research as to other parts of his life.

When my father died in 2002, I had a newly born baby and a newly widowed mother to look after and my father's research was put away in a box. Since that time, my mother has passed away and my children (two of them now) can amuse themselves sufficiently to give me some time to myself so I've decided to take up where my father left off and continue with his family history research and that of my mother's side of the family too.

My father's parents were Charles Roberton and Lydia Jane Whittaker. My mother's parents were Alfred Lodge and Maud Lockwood. Those four branches - Roberton, Whittaker, Lodge and Lockwood - will be the focus of my research and this blog, although I'm sure ancestors with other surnames may occasionally want a chat. I have my father's notes to kick me off and a lot of available information on the internet too.

I look forward to sharing my findings with you. Who knows? We may be related.