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Welcome to “Biggins Konnections”, the master genealogy website for the various and diverse branches of the Biggin and Biggins family, including “in-laws”, “outlaws” and “camp followers”. :-)
This website is a work in progress. In spite of the Web Master’s “advanced age”, he still conducts business 8 to 14 hours per day. In other words, please be patient. It will get done, hopefully, in this lifetime. There are boxes and file folders stuffed with information, photos and family mementos of days gone by that must be sorted out, scanned and entered on the appropriate family member’s webpage. Adding to the complexity of the job, the two cousins mentioned below have provided copious quantities of additional information. :-)
First off, a sincere “thank you” to my first cousin, Lesley Dale Biggins (Winter). Without her heroic research efforts and the compiling of the Biggins genealogical flow chart, my job would have been more difficult by several orders of magnitude!
Secondly, a previously unknown cousin from Canada, Cathy Morriss (the 3rd child of Monica Marie Riley (2nd daughter of Mary Ellen Biggins and Ralph Leo Riley), great grand daughter of Matthew Biggins and Deborah McGrath/Biggins) found the rest of us by her never-ending quest for her “roots”! “Thank you!”, Cathy, and/or “Merci beaucoup, mon ami!”, for providing absolutely excellent, additional, major information and pictures on the Biggins family (The Saga of the Missouri River Reveille)!
Our intent has been to not only construct the family genealogical tree but to share anecdotes, stories and our rich history, as well as existing, pertinent photos of our family that have been archived, some of them for well over 150 years, with the younger generations as well as the “ancient ones” before this wealth of knowledge and information is lost forever! None of us are getting any younger, in spite of the uproar over “Botox” injections! :-)
As an opening salvo in your perusal of this website, you will find that there are several historical documents for the Biggins Family that are the researched and registered history of the family. In addition, the document mentioned above (The Saga of the Missouri River Reveille) is an excellent source of background information. Yes, the Biggins really do have an actual, registered Coat of Arms! All three of these documents are well worth the time to read through for pertinent background on the family (even though there are differences between the two “registered family history” documents).
The alphabetical “Master Surname Finder”, as well as the alphabetical “Descendants/Given Name Finder”, were designed to facilitate a search for a particular branch of the family by “Surname (birth family name)”, as well as narrowing down a search for a specific individual by their “given name”. Every known individual (Given Name) within a Surname has their own web page containing all known, pertinent, chronological facts; date and place of birth, date and place of death, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, siblings, marriage(s), and progeny, including stepchildren and adopted children, pictures and specific information of interest. Whenever photos and/or information are available on an individual, and in the WebMaster's archives, they will be placed on that specific individuals page. Each Given Name webpage has a “Photo Gallery” containing photos specific to that individual and, wherever possible, historical documentation and information.
Please understand that the photos currently available for viewing in the appropriate “Photo Galleries” are just the tip of the iceberg! Yes, there are moments that the WebMaster fully understands the potential for becoming the skipper of a “Titanic”! ;-)
There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photos to be added as time permits. You will undoubtedly note that there are some tremendous time gaps between a lot of the photos. If you don’t see a particular photo in a specific time sequence, please don’t get pushed out of shape. :-) Again, this will be corrected as rapidly as possible.
The incredible quantity of photos that were passed down by C. L. (Les) Biggins, after his death in 1997, is nothing short of staggering! There are some old “tin types” and hundreds of black and white photos, some dating back to at least 1855 or earlier. A rough estimate indicates that there are approximately 10,000 2-1/4 X 2-1/4 colored slides and several thousand 35 mm slides. This does not includes several thousand 35 mm color prints and albums of black and white photos. Granted, not all of those photos have anything to do with the family. Needless to say, however, it is still a daunting task!
Should anyone discover gapping holes (broken or missing branches) in the family tree, and they just happen to have in their possession, or have access to this “missing” information, please contact us by e-mail using the link at the bottom of this page. Be as specifics as possible; describe the document(s) or photo(s), content, person, time frame, etceteras. If, as suspected, we do not already have this information please “scan” (at a reasonably high resolution) any and all of it (documents or photos) into your computer and forward them to us, again, by e-mail. We will “adjust and/or enhance” the photo(s) and/or document(s), as necessary, for best possible viewing. We will then make every effort to incorporate your contribution(s) to the website as soon as possible in order to share your valued input with the rest of the family. If you do not have a computer/scanner, please contact us and we will provide a mailing address. We will also be happy to provide credit/recognition on the website for your contribution(s), should you so desire (just let us know). :-)
The photos in the “Photo Gallery” are called “thumbnails”, meaning simply that they are small in computer storage size (bytes) as well as physical appearance. In addition to getting as many photos on a page as possible, “thumbnail” size photos facilitate as rapid a “browser page loading time” as is possible. Once you locate a photo that you would like to see in greater detail (physically larger) just double click on the photo and you will be taken to a separate page with an enlarged copy of that photo. Please bare in mind that the enlarged photos will take longer for your browser to load as they are not just visually larger, but physically larger in computer storage size (bytes). While viewing an enlarged photo page, you can navigate to the next enlarged photo, or you may return to the previous enlarged photo simply by clicking the appropriate “left” or “right” arrow on the page. Returning to the thumbnail “Photo Gallery” page is accomplished by clicking on the “up” arrow.
Your comments are always welcome and greatly appreciated. Enjoy...!
Sincerely,Biggins KonnectionsDavid Belfrey Biggins, (WebMaster) |
