Welcome to the worldwide

Greathead family 

 One name study

               What's new  2005          

I have set up a page for old what's new items.  The link is 2005 and is located under the heading on the what's new sheet. 

Well my website has reached its first birthday. One year old, and what a fantastic year.  I have met so many wonderful people who have so willingly shared their information and provided pictures for everyone to enjoy.  As usual I only display their names, but am always willing to put you in touch with them as long as both parties are happy. I continue my policy of not including narratives of "live" people, but keep the information coming as my personal database contains about 5,000 "live" people on which I continue to collect information as well as the 11, 000 "dead" ones.

This year I have managed to add:

•  census information for the years 1841 - 1901(not all counties for 1841)

• will indexes 1858-1958 from Probate Office and some pre 1858 from TNA

• New Zealand birth, marriages and deaths

• WW1 US registration cards

• WW1 and WW2 medals and deaths 

•  Many photographs

• Information and photographs from over 70 new contacts

• Place names listings

• Icons to help you identify which county ancestors hail from

• and much more...................................

and may I offer a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone.  Long may our friendships last and the information and pictures continue to flow please

Next update due 31 December 2005   

Next update 30 November 2005                                                 

I have received lots of photographs, but you will only see the ones attached to narratives found on the website.  Hopefully I continue to refrain from including narratives on "live" people.  Many thanks to all those who sent information and photographs please do check I have interpreted the data correctly.

Several trips to London have provided information on St Vincent Greatheads.  I hope to add next month when I have unravelled all the families of Craister and Marmaduke.

Off to help on the GOONS stand at the West Surrey Family History Fair on Saturday 5 November in Woking, Surrey.  Come and introduce yourself the entry and parking is FREE

Next update 30 November 2005                                                   

We spent several weeks of it in deepest France enjoying our annual holiday and recharging of the batteries. I have responded to all the Emails sent to me and I thank everyone for their patience.  There was no possibility  of electronic communication from the valley we stayed in.  

I have added many photographs and am struggling to match some images of the 1841 census that a friend has helped me to gather with the correct families.

Some wonderful stories have come to light about a Jack Greathead from his St Jude, "patron saint of lost causes"

I have attended a palaeography course at the IHGS and handed in one of my assignments

Next update due 31 October 2005                                            

Afterwards I went to the FRC lecture entitled Theatrical Sources for Family Historians, so now I am off to the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden to follow up Leotard Bosco's life.

Then I managed to obtain the fifteen spouse first names I was missing who married Greatheads from 1912.  These were the Jones, Davies, Evans and Smith spouses.

While there the TV cameras started to roll, recording the new series of "Who do you think you are?"  Julian Cleary was the subject and during a pause in filming he kindly gave me his autograph.  What a nice man we had a little chat before I left him reading his great grandma's certificate.

I have added five  more trees to the index, making it hopefully easier to identify where the oldest identified ancestor of any particular person was born.  Hopefully I will in time be able to use these trees to identify our original Greathead.

Next update due 30 September 2005     

We decided we, like most other British people we are not going to change our ways and we plan to continue to visit London and use the underground.  After all our  James Henry spent ages designing the Greathead shield to build the tunnels!!!!

 I have also bought quite a collection of birth and marriage certificates this month so have been able to link some more twigs together.  Do have a look at the birth and marriage certificate pages and the new or changed narrative pages to see who has been linked with whom.

I have spent quite some time this month trying to link up all the Lincolnshire branches, I have had some success.  Do look at this branch and let me know if you have any further information, photographs, certificates etc.  Hope to hear form YOU.

Lastly thank you to all those who sent me birthday wishes.  

Next update due 31 August 2005                               

I visited Eton College library and spent a morning taking notes on Greathead's (including variants) who attended the college and finding out about their achievements.  All I discovered has now been added to the website.

Another visit to the Probate Office has enabled me to now add all the Greathead's (including variants) entries from the index up until 1943.  Information has been added.  I also bought the wills of James Frederick  and Mary Greatheed alias Leotard and Mary Bosco.  I continue the search for more information on the couple.

Next update due 31 July 2005                              

Just when I thought I had identified all the variants I discover that a London family used Greated.  But at least that broke down one brick wall I had of three London born boys who appeared in Kent.  Thanks to a visit to the Probate Office in London I have now gathered more family information from the wills indexes.

My thanks are due to a very kind lady from the Bristol FHS with whom I spoke at the SOG Fair.  She and I have been exchanging Emails and I managed to find some further information on our sad Bristol family who fell on hard times when the husband died.  One child Louisa # 2355 was born deaf, dumb and blind but went on to live for to a magnificent age of 72.  Her brother James Frederick # 12411 became a ventriloquist and married a singer.  They moved to Birmingham and in the end owned at least one theatre.  James' personal estate was worth £1,566 when he died in 1895 aged 45.  I dearly want to investigate more into this family.  Can you help please?

All the information that I have been able to glean from the 1861 census is now included.  Phew that was a task!!!

I have also taken advantage of the GOONS offering me space on their website and created a Greathead page 

Next update due 30 June 2005                                     

Sorry not uplifted until 2 May 2005

We were flying yesterday and the SOG fair on Saturday

Several new contacts have been found and I am excited to hear that two Australian contacts are visiting England during May and I hope to meet up with them.  

During world library week 10-16 April I was able to get access to Ancestry Plus and obtained the enumeration sheets for 1920 and 1930 US census.  This has greatly helped me in locating families who travelled across the big pond to start a new life.  Information has been included on the relevant narratives.

I have been continuing to work on trying to link some of my twigs to branches and bought several significant certificates.  I have lots of paper charts all over my wall and will be writing to my contacts to gain more information, now I know more.  I have added five coloured trees, each symbolising an area where the oldest known ancestor was born for that "branch" of the family.  To find out the relevant counties refer to the main page. 

External links now have their own page and I will be adding links in due course

Next update due 31 May 2005                                        

I have also spent quite a lot of money on certificates this month, again trying to identify parentage.  If you have any certificates I would be very grateful (and so would my purse ) for copies.  

I have gained two new contacts on the variant GREETHEAD and together with their help and additional GRO index and census searching on my part considerable progress has been achieved.  Many thanks Brenda, Robyn and of course Ruth who started my interest in the GREETHEAD's and continues to send valuable information. 

Christine has been wonderful sending copies of enumeration sheets from 1861 Yorkshire census.  She told me the Easter bunny had arrived early.  I am very grateful.

I wrote to all the Greathead's I could find in the New Zealand White pages and am so pleased to announce that I have received replies from six of the nineteen people to whom I wrote.  One gentleman sent me his whole family tree and a layout of the family home.  People are so kind.

A big thank you to all my new and "old" contacts for information shared.  Do keep up the correspondence

Next update due 30 April 2005                                        

Did you know there is a cocktail called a Greathead ? a bay on St Vincent and Grenadines Islands called Greathead? a crag called the Greathead crag in the Lake District, England?

I have added several pages about the New Zealand and USA branches of the family, together with details of who emigrated, when and which ships took them there.

Lots more census information added 1871 through to 1901

Lots of shared information from new and old contacts, maybe next month there will be something from YOU

Next update due 31 March 2005                                      

31 January 2004

Further information including census returns for the variants Greathed, Greatheed, Greethead are now  included.  It would appear that people can be born one variant, be married another and even die another.  So beware.

Lots of certificates and a great many wills have been kindly sent by Peter Greathead.  The certificates have been added, the wills are listed on my Wills page.  I am still trying to "read" them to put the information on the website

I have included a page of unidentified photographs.  Do view them, maybe you can put names to the faces.  I do hope so.

Many, many people have sent me delightful Emails giving me encouragement to continue.  Some corrections have been received, certificates, photographs and additional information, all of which are actioned immediately.  A big thank you to everyone.

With the upgrades over Christmas of both TMG and Second Site quite an considerable amount of cleaning up of the data has taken place.  Especially to provide the new link to Places, N.B. some also have information and pictures added, watch out for the increasing number of .  Hopefully by adding this link, together with Wills, Kent, Lancashire and Somerset you will find who or what you are interested in more quickly.

Since so many changes have been needed in the clean up I have reduced the listing of new and changed narratives to reflect changes after 17 January 2005. Just look around hundreds of changes have been made, some cosmetic, many with more information.

I am having fun I do hope you continue to review the website and keep the correspondence coming.  Your information will be included in the next upgrade.

Next update due 28 February 2005                                      

All of the 1871 census enumeration sheets with Greathead entries currently available from www.ancestry.com have been added.  The other years will be completed in the New Year.

The descendants of Robert Greathead #4250 have been confirmed and added to by Lorraine Kenny (nee Greathead)

The information on the variants Greathed, Greatheed, Greethead are now  included.

Amendments, additions and changes have been added from current and many new sources.

Some newspaper articles, pictures of houses, graves and churches have been added.  More will follow........

Next update due 31 January 2005                                       

Database ready for web site and for checking by other readers.  

Next update due 31 December 2004                              

This site may be linked to but not duplicated in any way, wholly or in part, except for private study. I must stress that although due care has been taken I cannot guarantee the information to be accurate.  Contact me if you have any further information, photographs, stories or if you find any errors I will happily correct them. Information of living persons is not included.

                                                                     Webmaster: Jan Cooper