21 October 2008|
Lord Olivier 
|
2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2008 |
AMERICAN BROOKING SOCIETY 
|
The Brooking Society
A Society for all who are related to or are interested in the Brooking Family
The Brooking Society was founded in 1983 by a group of amateur genealogists who were researching their Brooking connections. It now has over 200 members in many different countries. The majority are in the U.K. but in particular there are many members in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; others are in Brazil, South Africa, etc. etc.The society pursues research into Brooking and related families, including Brooking variants such as Brookin, Brookins, Brookens, Brookings, Brookling, Brooklyn, Bruckin etc. The results are published in the society's journal, "The Brooking Family Historian" which is mailed free three times a year to all members.
The society possesses a large archive of Brooking material including more than 1200 family charts, photographs, and many other documents.
A reunion is held every year, In even years (e.g. 2010) a weekend long meeting is held in Devon, the heartland of the family. At such meetings the programme includes visits to places of Brooking interest, talks on Brooking history and the local area, a dinner, and of course the official Annual General Meeting at which officers report to the membership and elections are held for the committee. In odd years (e.g.2009) a one-day meeting is held usually outside Devon, this will also include talks and the A.G.M. We are fortunate in usually having overseas members present at our meetings.
Subscriptions.
U.K. Individual member £7.50
U.K. Family membership (members at one address) £9.00
Overseas Individual £11.50
Overseas Family £13.00
Concessionary rates for students and senior citizens. Please enquire.
We regret that due to high currency conversion costs we require subscriptions to be paid in sterling, we have an American Chapter, and co-ordinators in Canada, New Zealand and Australia, to whom subscriptions can be paid in local currency . Interested people in other countries are invited to contact us to see if payment arrangements can be made.
Please apply to the Secretary for an application form.
Our Journal
The Brooking Arms
This is one form of the Brooking Arms. These arms were used by Rear Admiral Samuel Brooking (1754-1834) though they were only officially granted to his kinsman John Savery Brooking in 1838, they may rightly be used only by John Savery Brooking's direct male descendants. The gold scallop shell above the crest is usually considered to be a symbol of pilgrimage, and the blue crescent there-in is often used as a mark of difference denoting that the bearer is a descendant of the original bearer. Other arms have been used by branches of the Brooking family, usually based on a similar shield with a different crest.
Our Library & Archive
In 2000 we realised that there were many authors in the extended Brooking Family
so it was decided to start a collection of books by and about people with the name
of Brooking and spelling variants like Brookings, Brookin etc.
Thanks to the Internet, the collection grew quite rapidly and now includes books from every continent. We still keep finding new books, but at a slower pace. A number of the books are privately printed biographies and genealogies in small editions donated by members.
We also collect press cuttings, ephemera from various Brooking enterprises, print-outs from the Internet, magazines with articles related to Brookings and many other things. The aim is to create a Library and Archive that can be a source for future researchers.
We happily accept old photo albums (which find their way into our extensive Photographic Archive), diaries, autobiographies (printed, typed or hand-written) etc. from members.
New acquisitions to the Library are regularly reported in our journal and the Library and Archive are constant sources of information and inspiration.
If you know of books and material mentioned above please contact Thorsten Sjolin at: thorsten.sjolin@btinternet.com
To see a list of the items in the library Click here
The Next Reunion - Sunday 17 May 2009
Charles Brooking - Famous 18th. century Marine Artist Click here to find out about him.
Genealogical Information: (Frequently being updated).
Click here to get a SURNAME LIST for:
Branches A, C, D & E contain 16th. & 17th. Century families.
Unassigned families are temporarily in Branches U & Z. Click the following links to get the different parts of Branch Z.
Click here for the 1851 Census details for Plymouth.
Click here for the 1871 Census details for Cornwall.
Click here for the 1881 Census of England & Wales.
Click here for the 1891 Census details for Cornwall.
Click here for the 1891 Census details for Devon.
Click here for the 1901 Census details.
Click here for the USA 1880 Census details.
The Brooking Society carried out a small genetic study among its members in 2002.
Click here to see the full 2003 report.
LINKS:
The Brooking Society is a member society of
Please contact the secretary for further information about membership,
To submit e-mails and articles to the Journal,
And, contact the record keeper for information from the charts
The 2009 reunion will be held in 'The Undercroft' of The Swan Hotel, Alresford, Hants.
The Hotel writes:
....
After many years we have re-opened
The Undercroft. It's exact date of construction
is still unknown. It was used as a detention
room for offenders convicted by the
magistrates until transport could be found to
take them to prison. Similarly Napoleonic
Prisoners of War who had broken their
conditions of their parole, and were awaiting
removal from Alresford, were held there
prior to leaving the town.
....
The address of the hotel is:
The Swan Hotel, 11 West Street, Alresford, Hants. SO24 9AD Tel: 01962 732302
and their website is: www.swanhotelalresford.com
The programme has yet to be finalised.
However, we will probably have a guided walk around historic Alresford and a short talk,
before having a buffet lunch and the AGM.
As usual there will be an informal meal on the Saturday evening for anybody who wishes to attend.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the death of Charles Brooking and the 260th
anniversary of the death of his colleague Peter Monamy an exhibition of paintings
by each artist, some of which have never been shown before, will be held at the
premises of Sotheby's New Bond Street on 19 - 30 July 2009 before moving to the
St. Barbe Museum at Lymington, Hants from 15 August - 17 October 2009.
The exhibitions will be accompanied by a comprehensive catalogue, written by
leading experts on Brooking & Monamy, with all paintings reproduced in colour.
A new plaque to commemorate the life of Charles Brooking can now be seen in
Tokenhouse Yard, just behind the Bank of England. The formal unveiling ceremony
took place on Monday 20th. October 2008.
The Foundling Museum has a fine Charles Brooking painting in its picture gallery.
The Brooking family is split into about 20 branches,
with each branch coming from a different village or town.
The links between the branches are conjectural, but DNA testing is helping to join the branches together.
The map shows where 9 branches arose.
Branch
B,
C,
F,
G,
H,
I,
J,
K,
L,
M,
N,
O,
P,
Q,
S,
SI,
SR,
UAQ,
UDC,
UO,
UPED,
V,
and
XY.
Branches H & J are probably part of Branch B.
'Variant-families' in the UK are in Branch S.
Branch SR contains the English BROOKINGS.
American 'variant-families' are in Branch V.
American 'BROOKING' families are in Branch XY.
Z(Brookling),
ZAA,
ZAAS,
ZABA,
ZAEM,
ZAK,
ZAMM,
ZHE,
ZRA,
ZUQH(Brooklyn).
The Brooking families of Australia.
For details of families that have emigrated to Australia Click here
CENSUS INFORMATION
To see a set of maps showing the distribution of 'BROOKING' and other families
in the various censuses, please click on the links below.
GENETIC INFORMATION
We tested subjects from 7 different branches - B, I, G, J, L, N, and S
The 2002 results are available by clicking here.
The 2004 results,
the 2005 results,
the 2006 results,
and the 2008 results.
THE FEDERATION OF FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETIES.
Click here to link to their site.
E-MAIL CONTACTS:
Click here to contact Mary Logan,
Click here to contact John Brooking.
or to comment about these pages.
Click here to contact Ian Logan.
2008