If you read the Emptages of Thanet website, it is highly likely that somewhere in your heritage you have an Emptage or Emtage ancestor.

No matter whether your ancestors can be traced back to Thanet, Sheppey, Grimsby or Barbados, we believe that all Emptages/Emtages world wide have their roots in the small Isle of Thanet in Kent, England.

The results of our DNA project so far indicate that our belief is correct.
 
 
So please join us in Thanet in September 2018 for an Emptage Gathering, open to anybody who has Emptage or Emtage heritage.

It will be an incredible opportunity to meet fellow Emptage of Thanet descendants.
 
 

Why this year?

At the end of April 2013 a number of Emptages gathered in Margate for the dedication of the memorial stone to the loss of the lugger Victory and its crew, which included two Emptages.

Not only was it a very moving event, it was the day that the decision to have a website dedicated to the Emptages of Thanet was finalised.

And so 2018 marks the fifth anniversary of this website and our private Emptage family tree on Ancestry.com.

Over the five years we have greatly added to our knowledge of our Emptage ancestors, not only from the Isle of Thanet, the Isle of Sheppey, Grimsby and Barbados but back into the 1400s. The tree has grown beyond anything we ever envisaged.

In fact, we have five trees which we believe all link back to a common ancestor in Thanet though whether we’ll ever be able to identify that common ancestor remains to be seen.

We couldn’t have achieved this without the Team Emptage members and other descendants of the Emptages who have shared their information with us.
 
 

When and Where

We think that a fitting way to celebrate our fifth anniversary and everybody’s achievement, is to have an Emptage Gathering in Thanet.

It will be held on the Saturday and Sunday, 8th and 9th September 2018.

We already have people coming from Australia, Barbados and the USA as well as the UK. Most of us will be staying in hotels in Margate or elsewhere in Thanet.

We will tour Thanet, visiting the villages, churches, cemeteries, museums and places associated with the Emptages and are hoping for and planning a few surprises.

There will be a dinner on the Saturday night and, as most people will be arriving on the Friday, no doubt there will be informal gatherings then.

If you would like to join us, or are considering doing so, please for further information or to request that you be added to our Gathering mailing list.

We’d love you to join our celebration. We can’t promise fireworks but….. chocolate cake….. surely you’ll come for chocolate cake?