Gas people united by the past
The classes, led by receptionist Christine Smeaton from Penshaw came about after she told her colleagues of her love for the past and in particular how she had personally traced her family tree back to the 16th century. Her natural enthusiasm for the subject rubbed off on her co-workers and the club was formed.
During a subsequent meeting, a conversation arose concerning a family called the Yeaman’s who originated from the Dundee area of Scotland. By chance, two other members of the group were astonished to find that they too were looking for links with the same family. “It was quite eerie to have such a strong family connection in such a small group,” said Christine.” My research has taught me however, that there are so many twists and turns in family tree research that nothing should be taken for granted.”
The Yeaman family connection was being researched by John Morrison from Killingworth, Lynda Vaughan, also from Killingworth and Ray Hedley from North Shields. “There are a number of Yeaman’s in the North Shields area who settled there after travelling down from Scotland,” said Ray. “It will be interesting to see if any of them are related to any of us. What we do know however is that all three of us here at United Utilities are related from two generations ago by marriage.”
United Utilities’ role within the North of England is to maintain and operate the gas network on behalf of Northern Gas Networks; the nature of the job involves a lot of digging, a fact that John Morrison thought was very appropriate for the family tree club. “The more you find out, the more you can piece together about your family,” he said.” We all still need to dig down a lot more before we can find out just how closely we are related but the odds against us each researching the same family in one office must have been huge.”
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