Down Rabbit Holes and Up Family Trees

Megan’s family database contains information on over 13,000 individuals who are in our family trees or associated with them. The website infrastructure we are using does not allow for the dynamic creation of family trees from a database of this scale. We have therefore prepared descendant charts at various levels using the Reunion software that holds all the information. These charts show the parents at each level and each of their children. They are presented as graphics.

The Bentall family name is spelt with and without an H. It originally had an H, but this was dropped during the 1600s until 1843 when Francis Benthall (1816-1903) went through the formal procedure of obtaining a Royal License to put the H back into the family name. Those who lived beyond 1843 are shown with the H.

If you click on a couple, their descendant chart will open in a new window or tab. If you open multiple charts, you will be able to follow the lines of descent. Zoom in or out on the charts to suit your computer screen.

The greyed out levels don’t produce a chart because we do not know who all their children were. We are sure that they are the parents of the next level down.

There is some complexity in the family tree because of interlinked families at various generations. The husband of a family at one level is the son of a family at the level above. Where the wife’s birth family is also in the table, this is denoted after her dates. Charlotte Louisa Ayliff (6A) is the daughter of 5Mb, Charles and Charlotte Marshall. For the Marshalls there are two families at Level 3 and two at Level 4. The links between the husbands at Level 4 to the families at Level 3 is denoted in the same way as for the wives. William (4Mb) is the son of John and Mary Marshall (3Ma), while Richard Marshall (4Ma) is the son of William and Dorothy Marshall (3Mb).