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In 1766 Claudius Adrian Charie A3 married Ann Martin A4 in St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch. Claudius, with two sons born in London to carry the name forward,was the ancestor of all members of the family in, or originally from the UK, who bear the Charie surname.

There is a strong family tradition that the original Charie in London was an immigrant Frenchman, but whether this was Claudius or his ancestor, is not known. Nothing is known of Claudius,of his origins, parents, siblings, age, upbringing, trade or death, although Old Bailey records from 1772 name him as the victim of a theft. If we knew more about Claudius our story could be taken further back. Was he "The Frenchman"?

Claudius was the ancestor to all subsequent members of the UK family in UK with his surname. Ours is a unique surname in UK, with fewer than 30 households and unique, or very rare, in those countries to which members of the UK family have subsequently emigrated. These notes record something of our family story through ten generations over nearly two and a half centuries.

Claudius' male descendants for three generations were jewellers, but it is not known if Claudius himself was also one. His early descendants remained in London, at first north of the Thames, later, one branch, the line from George Dennis C11, crossing London Bridge to South London.

Claudius had three great-grandsons who were jewellers, Charles Christopher D9, John Matthew Junus D27 and Robert George D23. About 1833, Robert George D23 travelled north to Birmingham, where he married and settled to head the branch still centered there today. His son, also Robert George, E11 followed his father into the jewellery trade.

The Charie line from Charles died out in 1957 with the death of his daughter Lydia Ann F28, a spinster aged 96.

John Matthew left the jewellery trade shortly after his first marriage in 1847, to become a bricklayer. His two sons, George James E3 and Charles John E5 were the forerunners of the London Charie families of today; north and south of the Thames till The Second World War, with little contact between them.

SinceThe Second World War, there has been much more movement, with family members now located from Sussex to Scotland, plus further emigrations including to South Africa, a second wave to Canada, the USA and Australia.

Our Charie story spans eleven generations (A to L, omitting I). From Claudius in late C18 London. There are 9 trees covering the various branches. All Charie family members are coded, the letter being the generation and the codes are usually live links to take you to the relevent tree page.