The 'Hole' Family History
This website records the history of a branch of the ‘Hole’ family who lived in central Derbyshire from the early 16th century and in Nottinghamshire from the end of the 19th century.
The pedigree of the male ancestors is traced back from John Hugh Hole, who died in 2000, through 14 generations to a John Hole who is presumed to have been born around 1525 and died in 1601 in the village of Morton, near Chesterfield. The earliest ancestor record, found in the Morton parish registers, is the burial of John’s wife, Joane, on 17th June 1576. Their son, John, married a ‘Marjerie' Milner on 14th January 1577. They had six children - John, Joan, Mary, Hugh, Thomas and Katherine. John died soon after he was born but Hugh survived leading to a succession of descendants with the names John and Hugh.
In 1538, Thomas Cromwell decreed that the English parishes must record all baptisms, marriages and burials. These lists were initially written on loose sheets of parchment. King James I ordered that the records going back to the start of Queen Elizabeth’s reign in 1558 be transcribed in to bound parchment books - the parish registers. Most records from the first 20 years have been lost and the upheaval of the English Civil War and the subsequent Commonwealth led to more gaps in the registers.
This website presents the genealogical pedigree chart of the ‘Hole’ ancestors from which may be selected the families of each generation revealing the life events so far established for each family member. The names of the direct line male ancestors are annotated to show their relationship to the current family historian, John David Hole; for example the suffix (3g-gf) indicates great-great-great-grandfather. An additional Personal Record page is provided for the male line ancestors from 1743 giving a summary of their families' lives with associated records, such as photos, newspaper articles and other contemporary references. The Index of Names lists all the ancestors so far identified in the family history. The Places pages describe, through maps, photos and historical notes, the locations where forbears lived over the past 500 years.
Where records of the life events of ancestors have not been found, the approximate year that they occurred is indicated with the word “circa” on the Pedigree and Family Group pages.
Origin of the Hole Surname
The English surname Hole is of local origin, being one of those names derived from the place where a man once lived or where he once held land. The source of the name can be traced to the Old English word “holh”. The surname was applied to a person who lived in a hollow and this fact was used by his neighbour as a means of identification.
The surname is recorded in English documents as early as 1200. In that year one, William de la Hole, is listed in the Pipe Rolls for Devon while Alice Attehole is registered in the Assize Rolls for Northumberland. In 1433, a John Houll was a resident of Yorkshire. The prefix “de” means “of” or “from” and indicates that a name is of local origin. Variants of the name include Holes, Houle and Hoyle.