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

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

Our searchable database of Banns, Marriages, and Burials, will be returning online soon.

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.
Fred Hockley
Sub-Lieutenant, executed on the last day of World War Two.
William Bonner Hopkins
Vicar of St. George’s Church.
James William Nightall GC
Fireman for LNER, who died during the Soham railway disaster.
Thomas Peacock
Philanthropic industrialist, and founder of Hope Brothers Ltd.
David Robert Spencely
Photographer of Main Street.
John Vachell
Vicar of St. George’s Church during The Littleport Riots.

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.

Some of our family trees are very large, including this Littleport rioter’s family tree from a 2017 exhibition.

Unidentified people

Our Archive contains a large collection of photographs, which includes those of people who are currently unidentified. 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.