Introduction

               

Families, like nations, often develop and pass down myths about their origins that have little to do with historical reality. In my own family, these included the belief that the unusual surname 'Myring' was of Dutch origin and meant 'bog dweller' (happily untrue), and that my mother's ancestors the Pheyseys were descended from Russian aristocrats by the name of Vesey (hogwash). The real answers were just as interesting (if more parochial) than these legends.

There was one other family name that also raised curiosity, that of my great-grandmother Laura Septima Arden (1892-1990). My father sometimes wondered whether there was a connection with the Forest of Arden, an area of northern Warwickshire not so far from our home in North Worcestershire. I was also aware that Shakespeare’s mother was an Arden from Warwickshire. It was my research into this question that led to the most exciting discoveries. 

For the Arden family is one of only three in Britain who can trace their origin back to before the Norman Conquest, and did indeed originate in the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire. But while Laura’s father did briefly farm in Warwickshire, I was to discover that he was born in Cheshire, scion of the Arderne family, an offshoot of the Warwickshire Ardens who were established in Cheshire in the thirteenth century. The Ardernes formed a storied part of the landed gentry of the county for centuries, fought in the Civil War, included famous physicians, priests and dandies, acquired the curious name ‘Pepper Arden’, and were later ennobled as the Barons Alvanley before finally becoming extinct – in the main family line - in the nineteenth century.

But there was a mystery; Laura Arden’s branch of the family descended from a junior line who had been modest farmers for centuries, yet her father was clearly aware of the Pepper Arden connection and named one of his sons ‘John Arthur Pepper’. Was he staking a claim to the Arderne family titles and fortunes?

This blog will address that question, as well as exploring other parts of the history of the Arderne-Ardens, Myrings and other family names that crop up in my tree.

I have dabbled with exploring my family history on-and-off for 25 years. Like many families we were able to create a family tree going back four and sometimes five generations based only on living memory and a few scattered documents. Going back further, though, required the sort of research that frankly seemed like too much effort; namely rooting around in records offices. Though I have a degree in history, and therefore a passable skill in finding and interpreting sources, my admittedly enormous capacity for developing a mono-focused obsession with researching something if I find interesting did not surmount the obstacle presented by the need for hard graft.

However, genealogical research is now much easier due to the proliferation of family history websites such as Ancestry.com. It was via a half-hearted browse of the latter website in 2016 that I discovered that it is now possible to push your family tree back centuries into the past with relatively little effort. 

This is very much a work-in-progress, and I suspect that the concept will evolve over time, but I intend that posts on the blog will fall into three broad categories:

1) Profiles of individual family members

2) Examinations of particular generations of the family, and their historical and social context.

3) Broader articles reviewing branches of the family tree over longer periods of time.

So I’ll be exploring the ‘roots and branches’* of my family, hence the name of this blog. It seems only fitting that I start with that grand old lady, Laura Arden.

Ben Myring

PS: If anyone has any questions or has information to contribute then please do get in touch!

*Roots and Branches is also the name of one of the greatest ever Bob Dylan bootlegs.