It is a common saying that “every Scotsman has a pedigree,” the rightful inference from which is that he esteems the memory of his father, and loves to recall them, in deed or story.
Introduction, Whittet: A Family Record, 1657-1900
So begins what is colloquially known as “The Whittet Book”—a tome of family stories and genealogical information compiled and published in 1900 by my great-great-great-grandfather, Robert Whittet, and his cousin, William Whittet, through the family printing business, Whittet & Shepperson, in Richmond, Virginia.
More than a century later, I hope to continue their work, digitizing their findings and expanding on them—a process made much easier by friendly relatives and the internet.
My grandmother has a hard copy of the book, but I was lucky enough to find a digital version on the internet. I took the time to convert this document to plain text, then formatted it to HTML.
Since these books are rather rare (I don’t know how many were published or their current locations), I'm planning on printing a second edition: perhaps a reprint, or including more current family information, seeing as how a century has passed since the printing of this book.
The Whittet Book only goes through the early 20th century, and as such, is missing a lot of recent information. I’m attempting to continue the work of that book and keep track of all the latest research and additional branches of the family tree.
Note that this page is only a descendancy from James (i.) and ignores things like the pedigree of spouses. I’m working on a GEDCOM that has all this information as known, though my focus is on Whittets.
Through the course of my research, I’ve stumbled across a lot of additional family history, interesting facts, and other random information that may be of interest to fellow family members. Things like:
You should check it out.