The
Kenney Family Tree
My father's tree on his father's side.
My father, Kenneth MARSHALL was the son of Reuben KENNEY (1877 - 1940). Reuben was a foreman at Lowood’s Brick Works at Deepcar, near Sheffield, and died of silicosis at the age of 63. Kenneth’s mother, Annie GROCOTT MATTHEWS MARSHALL (see their family tree) wanted to register his birth under another given name but the Registrar told her that she couldn't use KENNEY as a surname because she wasn't married to the father and therefore he was illegitimate, whereupon she did some quick thinking and offered instead the given name Kenneth, the closest name to KENNEY that came to mind.
The Registrar was actually acting illegally, and going only on tradition, because under the law at that time and since, Kenneth wasn't actually illegitimate because his father had taken him in, recognised him as his own, and adopted him. For illegitimacy it is not sufficient for the parents to be simply unmarried; the father has to refuse or fail to accept the child and to take him in. However, tradition is very strong in rural parts of the UK and most would have viewed him as illegitimate simply because his parents had not married. He certainly viewed himself as such.
He was unknowingly descended from and related to all the Dukes of Hamilton since 1634 (my DNA report), as well as to Sir Henry Clinton (and hence the Dukes of Newcastle), Susan Sarandon and Dr Mehmet Oz. Genetic markers indicate that the common ancestors with the Hamiltons and with Sarandon are quite recent but the connection with Clinton and Oz can be shown to be pre-medieval. In all these cases the actual connection has yet to be traced and he certainly never knew any of them, although the Sarandon connection is so close that he actually knew of it.
He was a rough cut, domineering man who formed hard images of everything in black and white, yet his knowledge of history was very extensive; he read avidly on that subject and a girlfriend of mine once asked him factual and discussional questions from an A-level history paper and was satisfied that he would have got a Grade B right there with no further study.
Regarding his coarseness I was surprised at first to discover his aristocratic roots, but I’ve known the aristocracy and the way they can be since I was a kid, and I soon realized that if we were to remove the title, money and lands from a lot of them, what would be left behind, apart from the accent but still including illegitimacies, boozing, shotgun violence, debaucheries etc,… would blend in very nicely with some of the rougher council estates we have, so perhaps I’m not all that surprised after all.
Relatively little work has been done on his side of my family tree, but what does appear here has been checked and verified.
My Father's Family Tree (his father's side)
The Grocott Family Tree
My father's tree on his mother's side.
Annie GROCOTT (1894 - 1934) hailed from Stoke on Trent but came to Sheffield in
the First World War to work in the offices of the munitions factories there.
She married twice before moving out to Deepcar and settling with Reuben KENNEY
with whom she had 2 children: Dorothy Mary, and Kenneth. She died in 1934 of
peritonitis following a hysterectomy. Penicillin, which would have saved her,
was discovered that same year.
My Father's Family Tree (his mother's side)