Until 2016, we had long thought the line of the Tate’s had ended, or at least we had no knowledge of any other links or branches of the family tree beyond the Delapré connections.
Then, quite out of the blue in September 2016, a gentleman by the name of Edward Tate got in touch with us to say that he had traced back his family tree to William Tate who was the brother of Zouch at Delapré Abbey. Not only was this exciting for us to find someone with a connection to the Tate’s here, but also that he and his wife were coming to visit – all the way from Illinois, USA!
So on 20 September 2016, Edward and Rita came along to the Abbey (still very much in the middle of its restoration) for a tour of their ancestor’s residence. It was a great opportunity for us to also dig a little deeper into their research. We discovered, through complex discussions, that William’s son, James Tate, was the one that emigrated to America and thus started that branch of the family tree.
After this exciting meeting, we now had more information on the Tate’s and an interesting connection to keep maintained. This story though, got even more substantial when in January 2017, another Tate link was established.
Debbie and Owen visited in April 2017 from Virginia, USA and spent a few hours touring Delapré Abbey and talking with us about how they fitted into the puzzle of the Tate’s. We explained what we had learnt from Edward’s visit in the previous year, and we thought there was a strong possibility that Owen’s lineage also merged with Edward’s, therefore taking it all the way back to James Tate in the mid-1600s.
These experiences have not only helped us widen our connectivity within the historical stories of Delapré Abbey, but more rewarding is the fact that it has allowed us to bring two families together – Edward and Owen – separated by time, joined by history.
