You are here: Home » Family History

Our genealogy work is led by Bruce Frost, who has been our expert ‘tree surgeon’ for many years.

We do not offer a professional family history researching service, but we are able to research family history using the resources, family trees, and range of archival documents and artefacts in our collection, as well as refer to our network of local Littleport family members too.

As such, we welcome monetary donations to the Society in recognition of this work and to cover our expenses when researching.

Littleport families

There are many deep-rooted families in Cambridgeshire, and no less so in Littleport itself, where surnames like Gotobed, Harrison, Luddington, Washington, Waddelow, Crabb, and Martin are woven throughout the centuries.

Through our extensive collection of local and genealogy records, we are able to trace long Littleport family histories for many surnames. Some of the most frequent surnames in our family tree collection include;

Surname	No. of People	Surname	No. of People
Barber	2382	Ellingham	997
Scotting	1615	Ginn	987
Harrison	1572	Martin	984
Gotobed	1362	Butcher	970
Lofts	1302	Francis	913
Waddelow	1248	Taylor	878
Little	1238	Sparrow	873
Crabb	1207	Harley	865
Earl	1059	Creak	840
Goodge	1005	Etherington	804

Above: The top 20 most commonly found surnames within the Society’s family tree collection.

We welcome you to contact us about your family history, whether you would like some help with your research, or if you would like to donate a family tree or family history items to our archive.

Notable People

Littleport has been home to some interesting, famous, and infamous people over the centuries. We have created short biographies for some of those people.

William Charles Barber
Letterpress Printer and Publisher of Victoria Street.
Read More or Search our Archive.

Elizabeth Crabb
Long-serving Supervisor at Hope Brothers Ltd and Burberrys.
Search our Archive.

Eileen Gill
Schoolteacher, local history author, and former President of The Littleport Society.
Search our Archive.

Ann Green
Littleport widow accused of witchcraft in the 1600s.
Read More.

Fred Hockley
Sub-Lieutenant, executed on the last day of World War Two.
Read More or Search our Archive.

William Bonner Hopkins
Vicar of St. George’s Church, Littleport.
Read More or Search our Archive.

Leila Arthur Luddington MBE
Chairwoman of the Ely District Local War Pensions Committee.
Read More.

James William Nightall GC
LNER Fireman awarded the George Cross for his bravery during the Soham Railway Disaster.
Search our Archive.

Thomas Peacock
Philanthropic industrialist, and founder of Hope Brothers Ltd.
Search our Archive.

John Vachell
Vicar of St. George’s Church during the Littleport Riots.
Read More.

William Beamiss
Labourer who was hanged for his role in the Littleport Riots.
George Crow
Labourer who was hanged for his role in the Littleport Riots.
John Dennis
Labourer who was hanged for his role in the Littleport Riots.
Frederick William Fitch
Chemist of Main Street and opponent of mains water supply.
Isaac Harley
Labourer who was hanged for his role in the Littleport Riots.
Thomas South
Labourer who was hanged for his role in the Littleport Riots.
David Robert Spencely
Photographer of Main Street.

Rioter Families

We have also undertaken significant research into the family history of the five men who were hanged for their part in the 1816 Littleport Riots; William Beamiss, George Crow, John Dennis, Isaac Harley, and Thomas South.

This research has included identifying modern-day relatives and descendants from around the world.

Unidentified people

Our Archive contains a large collection of photographs, which includes those of people who we have not been able to identify whilst cataloguing.

We welcome your help to identify these people – take a look at our Unidentified People collection in our catalogue, and let us know if you recognise anyone.