Funnell’s Wood is opposite Funnell’s Farm. Yes, it really exists, it’s not just an inspired name for a website full of family trees! The address is now Nutley near Uckfield, East Sussex. The farm was once in Fletching. Boundaries have changed. Funnell’s are no longer concentrated in Sussex, England but can be found the world over. If we want, the Internet can bring us closer together than our ancestors were when they lived just a few miles one from another.
I started researching family history about 10 years ago. I met up on the net with Jeff Funnell from Balcombe, Sussex. We pooled our information and came up with the first version of this site in May 2000 and a tree regrouping Funnells from Maresfield, Fletching, Brighton and Lewes and a branch in Canada. Harry Price from Australia later contributed a tree of Funnells originating from Mountfield.
The site attracted a lot of messages of goodwill and queries from people all over the world looking for Funnell ancestors. Every Funnell researcher agrees that we’re all related. You just have to go sufficiently back in time to find the link and the jigsaw will fall into place. So far, we’re back to about 1680…
Family History research costs a lot of time, energy and money. It seems a pity to keep it to one’s self when it can profit others.
This is the first step in an ambitious interactive project. My tree is online. Not just the minimal details but all of my (our) research to date, complete with notes, photos, documents. I’m hoping that you’ll add to it.
I’ve been in touch with other researchers who share my feelings. Family history is too much and a too time consuming passion to get a global picture on one’s own. As our ancestors said “two donkeys work better than one” so this site is going to be a collective effort.
The idea is to build an online repository of Funnell family information, free for all Funnell descendants. This includes not only genealogy but also family stories, diaries, inscriptions, memories and anecdotes.
YOU can participate, here on the blog with comments, Funnell stories and memorabilia or in the Family History section. All you have to do is request your user accounts. You can even use the same login and password for the two sections.
We don’t take money, just Gedcoms, information and pictures.
Help unite the Funnells of the world…