Tuesday, 1 August 2023

Bicket Family Reunion - 5th -7th August 2023 - not just for Bickets !

 

Bicket Reunion in Kilmarnock 5-7 August 2023

Centrestage

 

Long-standing readers of the Kilmarnock Standard may remember articles about the Bicket family tree appearing first in 1969, and then again in 1981. Since then ork on the family tree has continued, and as a result there will be a family tree reunion at CentreStage in Kilmarnock on 5-7 August 2023. 

The organizers would be happy to welcome others who are interested in attending.  Please check with bicket@one-name.org.

Saturday 5 August will be the main day, when group photos will be taken.

Stuart Wilson, a local historian, will be giving a couple of talks during the reunion.  On Saturday 5 August he will be talking on ‘Why your ancestors left Scotland’.  There will also be short overviews of many of the branches by their members. 

It is planned to visit local places associated with various ancestors on Sunday and Monday.

There have been a few well-known Bickets from this Ayrshire tree. 

One of them, Sir Alexander Bicket (1853-1931), worked for the Kilmarnock Standard in 1870 when he was 17, before heading to Liverpool and making his name in the tugboat business there.  His great-grandson is Harry Bicket OBE, the conductor.  Thomas Walter Bickett (1869-1921) was governor of the state of North Carolina in the USA from 1917 through 1921.  Welton David Becket (1902-1969) founded one of America’s largest architectural firms.  And there are still many descendant Bickets, Bicketts, Beckets, Becketts and Bichans in Ayrshire, throughout Scotland, and throughout the world, including Canada, the USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

Bicket family tree research started using deep DNA testing in 2018.  The result has been the identification of 27 different branches of this tree which originated in Ayrshire.  21 of these branches all descended from a single individual born around 1400. There are five genetic branches which can only trace themselves back to the north of Ireland (Antrim, Down, Sligo, and Mayo), but they are genetically clearly part of the Ayrshire tree.

There is more information about the family on https://bicket.one-name.net.

 

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