My interest in family history started back in my schooldays when in 1962 at Rushey Mead Boys School in Leicester I wrote an article in the School Magazine "The Rushey Median" entitled "Digging up the Family Tree".My initial interest was in the name "Jacques" my mothers maiden name but I eventually decided to trace my fathers ancestry on his mothers side (MATTHEWS).Out of this grew my interest in a larger scale project extending beyond the original counties of Leicestershire and Warwickshire.The research now stretches back more than 20 years and I have only probably scratched the surface of the project.

After doubts as to whether I should register the name and  helpful discussions with Guild Members Kevin Merrison and Jackie Depelle I decided to register in July 2018. 

I would be pleased to consider a collaboration with any others interested in the same surname and variants.My data collection is carried out using Custodian and The Family Tree reconstitution using Family Historian. A TNG website has now been constructed and includes my own tree and other Leicestershire Matthews families - additions will be made at periodic intervals. Families in the following Counties :- Dorset,Gloucestershire, Herefordshire,Lincolnshire, Norfolk,Northamptonshire,Northumberland,Nottinghamshire, ,Oxfordshire, Rutland,  Somerset,Staffordshire, Warwickshire,Wiltshire,Worcestershire, and Yorkshire have now been added to the website.

Work is ongoing for the counties of Cornwall,Essex,Kent,London,Middlesex and the Counties within Wales.I would particularly welcome collaboration for any Matthews/Mathews interested in those Counties.

The registered variants of the name are Mathews,Matthew and Mathew.I have not included the name Mathers and Mather in my Study.In my researches I have found that the spelling "Matthews" is predominant over "Mathews".In many indexes (particularly the Census) the "Matthews" entries have been recorded as "Mathews" and vice versa without any consistency.In order for conformity my family trees for any of the branches are shown as "Matthews" unless I have considered that any of the variants is more apt (e.g the Mathew family of Ixworth/Pakenham in Suffolk)

The Matthews surname is a patronymic surname meaning basically "son of Matthew"

In my researches to date I have found a predominance of the Matthews family in Warwickshire (Census Entries 1841-645 and 1911-2111),Staffordshire (Census Entries 1841-750 and 1911-2924),Gloucestershire (Census Entries 1841-623 and 1911-2095) and Yorkshire (Census Entries 1841-780 and 1911-2979).I have not yet covered the Southern Counties in detail.However I have looked at the 1841 Census for Cornwall and found 1387 entries.Certain of the Cornish families relocated northwards from tin and copper mining to coal mining in the north of England.A number of Cornish families appear to have moved to Millom and Cleator in Cumberland.