When my father, Harold Ernest Montague Newman, died in 1991, it was always the intention of my sister and myself to erect a small memorial for him in church or churchyard of the Somerset village of Brent Knoll where he spent the last 27 years of his life. The idea in the back of our minds was that it would provide a link, or a means, for future members of the family to "discover" him. However, both my sister and I have lived overseas for many years, and it has continued to trouble both of us that we have never got around to undertaking this "duty" of remembrance.

Then the idea dawned on me that a "Newman Family Tree" web site would be a far more useful and accessible memorial to my father than any stone in a distant graveyard, and probably more permanent as well. So this is the plan, and this is the start of what I am sure will be an ongoing adventure for myself, and hopefully for other members of the Newman family, and other families and friends to whom the family may be (or may have been) directly or indirectly linked. Hopefully it may inspire my own children to develop an interest in, and to discover more about, their ancestors when they get older. Since the idea is to make this a memorial to my father, I will appoint him to lead the way into the tree. Thus you must begin with the story of Harold Ernest Montague Newman, born at the dawn of a new century, on 5th October 1900.

Last Updated: 23 July 2002