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About me - Jan Cooper
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Last updated 1 November
2010 |
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What
am I doing? - What can I do for you?
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Publications -
I
belong to - Thanks
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I was christened
Janet Susan Greathead. My mother would use Janet with sufficient force when I
had been naughty, not often of course………
I am very fortunate to have Martin, three children, three children-in-law and
six grandchildren all of whom I am so very proud and would love to see more of, but our busy lives so often prohibits frequent
visits:
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Paul
married Lucy,
they have two daughters, Abigail and Camilla, John
married Helen,
they have a son Maxwell and daughter Darcey, Linda
married Steve, they have daughter Jessica and a son Harry, and we have Cyd
the newly acquired tabbycat
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| My 50th
birthday was the turning point in my life, for many reasons. Forget life begins
at 40. I met and fell in love with Martin shortly after my 50th birthday. I adore
flying with him in our
single
engined Cessna 170B, which we try to fly most weekends and used to enjoy our peaceful French holidays to the forgotten
Lot valley.
Father Christmas gave me one year a digital video camera and I am now learning the
mysteries of movie making, and in 2010 he presented me with a lovely new digital
camera. I can take fantastic pictures of documents when I go to the
National Archives and other record offices. I am also trying to take
pictures of historical places connected with my study. We are avid
Archer fans. I enjoy meeting people, my address book is increasing daily and I dearly want
to travel to see places and meet people relevant to my one name study.
History and Geography are now fun. |
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I had assumed for the
first fifty years of my life that my paternal family came from the North West of
England (Cumbria - or rather Lancashire as my
Dad used to say. Cumbria was
formed to help the Ordnance Survey sell maps). Following finding some
professionally taken photographs of a vicar, a
gravestone and many rather "grand" people. I decided to find out
who they were, and what was the significance of the gravestone of
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Matthew and
Anne Lamb Some of the photographs
of the people had some writing on the reverse. I believed it to be my
fathers writing. One said Uncle xxx, another Aunt xxx. But I had
grown up with no knowledge of immediate family. My
mother was an only
child and my fathers only and older brother died aged sixteen. We didn't
"do families". It now transpires that my paternal grandparents were
born in Hartlepool. My mother's maternal family come from Suffolk
and paternal family from Wales. All news to me. Why did I not
ask??? |
| Can I call myself a "monkey
hanger?" I have been trying to make up for lost knowledge ever since.
I initially collected everything I could on the Greathead name and anyone who
shared it. Soon I was told that I had the makings of a one name study and after
checking out exactly what I was letting myself in for, I still continued along
that line, joining the GOONS and registering my research. Mad, idiotic some
would say but Oh so much fun. I have met and corresponded with so many wonderful
people, not all named Greathead either. They have all without exception given
their time, help and information so freely and willingly. Genealogy surely
brings out the very best in everybody. |
| My personal database now include in excess of
26,000 names and has been extended to include not only my paternal ancestors,
but also my maternal ones and the extended Greathead family. Do contact
me for
further information. The names I am particularly interested in are:
Anderson, Banthorp, Birks, Bullock, Curchin, Hutchinson, Lamb, Mitchell, Tunley
and Turmaine. |
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P.S. Oh, and the grave was that of my
2x great grandparents in
Holy Trinity
churchyard, Seaton Carew in Durham and the
vicar the Rev. John Lawson who married my great grandparents.
P.P.S. The picture at the top of
my pages is of the weddings of my grandparents (left), my parents (right) and
"the boys"
George (my great grandfather),
Tom (my grandfather) and
Norman (who would have been my uncle had he not sadly died aged sixteen from
leukaemia).
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