I first started my research in February 1999 by delving into Arthur Whiteley’s First World War record as a member of the Machine Gun Corps.

The information would not been available for at least 18 months.

I subsequently found out that his records were destroyed during an air raid on London in 1941. I then decided to research the Whiteley family tree and as I spoke to various cousins I soon realised that all the snippets of information had to be recorded somewhere; they may not all be true but the person giving me the information believed them to be so. Hence the Whiteley family history.

I would like to dedicate this work to my Grandfather, Arthur Whiteley, a man with whom I should have spent a lot of time, listening to his stories, anecdotes and adventures.

Although the Whiteley family lived in the Hull area for over 150 years the Whiteley name is not an East Riding name but actually seems to have originated in the West Riding area of Yorkshire sometime before 1550.
The original name was Whitley and when John Whitley had his son Israel christened in 1748 it was recorded as Whiteley and the rest, as they say, is history.

In the 1881 census of Great Britain there were 11,218 Whiteley families listed, of these only about 40 were ours.

By July 29, 2003 the family history book had become too big, cumbersome and disjointed as I tried to keep everything in chronological order.

I therefore decided to split it into 3 parts:
First part is the original family from 1550 until present day.
Second part to record the descendants of Israel Whitley born 1791 and:
Third part to record the descendants of John Whiteley, who was to become the great, great, grandfather of William Whiteley of the Bayswater store and Whiteley Village fame.

Now I have had to start book 4 as I have recently discovered that part of the family emigrated to America in 1842.