My own Dunningham roots as far as I can trace with any reliability start in Ardleigh Essex with a Thomas Doningham and Mary Baldon being married in 1631. The main density of Dunningham's prior to this time seems to be in Hadleigh Suffolk and I have assumed this is where my roots start but this is as yet to be proven.
My ancestors were farmers and in the early seventeen hundreds they appear to have moved to the adjacent Great Bromley. Although most of the births and burials at that time were at Great Bromley Church my direct ancestors were later recorded as living back in Ardleigh in the special census of 1796, this census was carried out I understand because of an imminent threat of invasion by the French. The last farmer on my direct line was my great great great grandfather Stephen who retired and then moved to Fingeringhoe Essex. In Fingeringhoe he lost many of his grown up family and then finally his wife Elizabeth. Men tended to need a family to look after them so he then moved in with his nephew Josiah in Colchester until he died in 1857.
Stephen's son Joseph had previously left Ardleigh and gone to Coggeshall to work for Saddler and Harness maker, eventually marrying the owners daughter Rebecca Evans in 1848 and took over the business. Farming was well and truly in the past and the next generations of my Dunningham's were Cabinetmakers, Bricklayers and then myself and my son as Mechanical and Fabrication Engineers and my daughter is a programmer.
As with all families there were many branches off and people travelled all over the world, from the
Ardleigh line they specifically spread to New Zealand, Scotland, America and Canada and from Hadleigh to
Australia some direct under their own steam and others via Tasmania as convicts. There is a branch of
Dunningham's in South America but from whence they came I do not know!
This website is an initial attempt to contact other connected Dunningham's but I have considerable
information including many lines and trees both connected and otherwise and built up over many years so if
you think I may be able to help your own research please contact me on the e-mail address below and I will
try and assist.
