Nicholas Thorne's Family History Pages- Three days in Scotland 2006

My name is Nicholas Thorne and this is my on-going family history project to open up doors into the past and see what I can find behind them.

I have a fascination with my ancestors, who they were, where they lived, what they did and by finding out I feel I am making some sort of connection with them.

The nature of this hobby is that, like peeling an onion you usually only come away with a thin bit of information each time. There is always so much more left to discover and I live in hope that each time I go looking a bit more of the whole will be revealed to me.

So far I have found ancestors in Dartmouth, Paignton, Plymouth, Bigbury and Tavistock, in Devon and In Reading, Berkshire and Portsmouth, Hampshire.

A rich line is being uncovered in Scotland, because of the wealth of information that is available in that country and yet there is so much more, I feel, that will gradually be revealed on the lines that I have yet to investigate.

I was lucky enough to visit Dartmouth in 2005 and to meet with a branch of the Thorne family that , like me, are descended from Captain Henry Thorne.
The 'Admiral', as he was nicknamed, was firstly the steersman and then the Captain of the Paddle steamer Dolphin, serving on her for forty years until 1904.

In August 2006 I spent three days in Scotland on the trail of my maternal great-gandfather's family, the Hays and was blown away to be shown a fantastic cartwheel family-tree tracing the line back to 1170 and a Norman called William de Haya who was cupbearer to two of Scotland's Kings!

This website is dedicated to all my family and to all my ancestors of every branch.