Thomas Atkins and a Grace Boulton, possible parents for Joseph Atkins, were married on 3 June 1778 in Cirencester. Photo: Celtic travellers in the 19th century.Name connections for Henry Edwin Atkins, son of Joseph Atkins and Ann Haines.ĪTKINS 1728 (Ref Journal of the Romany and Traveller Family HistoryĮdward Atkins, our ancestor, Joseph Atkins and his son Henry Edwin Atkins, Edwin Atkins, convict transported to Australia.īOLTON/BOULTON(EN) 1873(Gypsies Passing Through) Not that it means anything in concrete terms and is more curiosity than anything, but, at the same time, it is another linkage between our ancestor and the two men who are very likely to one and the same man. To find so many connections for Atkins is, to my mind, meaningful. While it might seem that there are a great many names on the Celtic Travellers Register, once studied, it is clear how many there are not. One could also argue, at a more esoteric level, that 'like attracts like' and even if there were not conscious connections there were unconscious connections. Given the strength of connections between families and even more for those who emigrated to strange and distant lands, it is no stretch to say that these many name connections mean something.
There are quite a few names which run through the three 'families' - Henry Edwin Atkins, Edwin Atkins, convict, (who did have HE tattooed on his arm and so is very likely to be the son of Joseph and Ann Haines Atkins) and our ancestor Edward Atkins. These are the connections to date where family names are listed on the Celtic Traveller register, starting with Henry Edwin Atkins. My first thought had been that gypsy meant Romany but of course it does not - the gypsies of Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales were as often as not Celtic and known as 'tinkers' or travelling traders. We now have more names associated with Joseph and Ann and more names associated with Edward and his two wives, Hannah McLeod and Elizabeth Mashford Lewis and many of those names are included in the list of Celtic Travellers, Gypsies, of Irish origin. At the time we did not have the information we now do, with a marriage between Joseph Atkins and Ann Haines/Haynes, the parents of the convict Henry Edwin Atkins and probably the parents of our Edward Atkins with the two being one and the same man. I found in gypsy records the names Atkins and Haynes (Haines) which is a link to our family. The possibility of a connection between Edward Atkins and gypsies came up some time ago but has re-surfaced and warrants further research.
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