Just a quick update as to what I am up to. My resolution for 2016 is to try to be more organized with family history and try to let people know what I am up to. (For personal reasons this is quite difficult for me.)
So I am still hooked on family history and the history of our ancestors lives. I do either family history or    background reading every day but I am very disorganized and jump about from one thing to another - but this works for me and by going off at random tangents I have found much interesting information. I am limited to getting to places to do hands on research.
I am interested in all my ancestors but the quakers have left much documentation behind and a lot of research into the families has already been published and this makes it easier and very interesting as background information not available otherwise can be found.
General quaker history has become a focus of interest - this is what I have been thinking about for a long time and still not resolved - how much did quaker history influence national history (religious, political, social, economic) or reflect national history? Previously I had no idea of the importance of the Quakers (a relatively small % of the population).
The Wilcocksons remain of interest but I have been following more two of the wives which has led to an explosion of the extended tree. I had wondered how they made the leap from farming (with perhaps cottage industry on the side) to shoe making and then to the hat industry. I have no proof this, it is just my own conclusion that Isaac who went to Wray in Lancashire learnt the shoe business from one of his mothers relations (possible Thomas her brother?) and that he made a most fortunate marriage to Mary Gilpin. Her family had been in business. Her line has led to very early connection to the Quakers - the Wilcocksons came relatively late. Topics of interest shearmen dyers of Kendal, Coalbrookdale and the Iron Bridge (Mark Gilpin clerk to Derby family), the Dodgson family of Crook links to Carr water biscuits in Carlisle, part of the Gilpin family went to Bristol. The MP Charles Gilpin and another later Gilpin MP. One of the questions I have in mind is how much of the family when it moved away was known to other branches and part of this was answered when I found a link between one of Isaac's (the shoemaker of Wray) grandsons and this Charles Gilpin. There are also possible links to the Cadbury family, and the Crosfield family of Warrington - Persil (and a feud with Port Sunlight?) Perhaps through his mothers relations David Wilcockson recieved financial backing and business knowledge?
to set up his hat business.
Then David himself married Esther Satterthwaite. The Satterthwaites are a fascinating but frustrating family to research. We can go right back knowing they lived in Hawkshead parish into medieval times. Hawkshead has been of interest to others who have kindly left books for us to read on its history - and its connection to Wordsworth also made it of interest. Of interest here the Abbey at Furness and its dissolution must have had a profound effect on our ancestors lives and prospects (thank you Henry VIII). But it is difficult to identify the different Satterthwaite families. Interesting links here to emigration to America, London, MP John Bright (of Rochdale), the Quaker Rimington family of Penrith,  the leather industry (Preston and Manchester), Ireland and the Hoare family - gentry, military and church of England people of note, the London Stock Exchange.
The history of places has become more interesting - even if our people are not named they lived there and experienced the same lives. Colthouse and Hawkshead, Kendal, Lancaster, Preston, Manchester, Warrington, and London.
Of course Manchester is of particular interest to me - knowing I'm walking in their footsteps. A Satterthwaite lived in Salford when he married. A Satterthwaite lived at Strangeways Hall (now the site of Strangeway Prison). I am slowly slowly learning about the Quakers in Manchester not a lot seems to have been written about them as a connection to Manchester. And when I go to the library I always say hello to MP John Bright's statue in Albert Square. There were several Quaker homes within 15 min walk of where I live. The Quaker meeting house was used by some of the victims of the Peterloo massacre. There was a split in the Quaker movement in Britain in the 1830s known as the Beacon controversy. Quakers definitely left their mark on Manchester - Bradshaw of the railway guides, Waterhouse the architect, John Dalton the scientist. For many years we have stood on platform 14, Piccadilly Station looking over at he deserted Mayfield station. There was a huge calico printing works there long ago called Mayfield, owned by the Hoyle family. William Satterthwaite married into this family and lived near there.
So you never know what you will find out next.