Who are we?

The Creek family has many branches. Our family may or may not be related to the rest of the Creeks but we are certainly connected to the Palmer, Atkinson and Fines families. The four families have their recent connections in the north of England, particularly along the east coast from Newcastle upon Tyne down to Boston in Lincolnshire with sorties into Derbyshire.

In the 19th century our ancestors travelled around the north, presumably looking for work but with the onset of the first world war the Creeks settled in Kingston upon Hull and many of us can be found still living around Humberside.

The Fines (or Fiennes) family was Norman nobility whose line can be traced back to the 10th century. By the 16th century they were well settled in Lincolnshire. Early in the 19th century several Fines, who by this time were agricultural workers, migrated to Eston near Middlesbrough to work in the burgeoning iron mines that had sprung up on the slopes of Eston Nab.

The Palmer family were in Lincolnshire in the early 18th century and appeared to be settled in Stickney until a young Palmer headed up to Sheffield seeking work.

Atkinson is a Yorkshire name and our branch was to be found in Selby at the end of the 17th century. The Atkinsons were quite happy in Yorkshire and two hundred years later they had only spread as far as Hemingbrough near Selby.

It was in East Yorkshire that the Atkinson and Fines members of the family met although the circumstances were both sad and tragic.

It was also in the East Riding where Nancy Atkinson met Oliver Plummer Creek and they were married near Howden in July 1946.