Website updated 1 July 2016

Many thanks this month especially to Jayne, Mandy, Rod, Corey, David, Ann, Peter, John and William.  I bought a marriage certificate this month, hoping it would solve a mystery.  Sadly it did not it just added another brick to the wall.

Today, I and many others remember lads who fell at the Somme.  Many people will understand this.

I dedicate this update all the lads who served and fell in WW1 but especially a relative of mine Lance Corporal Arthur Reginald Birks who died 100 years ago today, killed instantly (thank goodness he did not suffer)  He signed up with his mates into the Durham Light Infantry. 

Website updated 1 June 2016

Once again a fairly busy month.  Steady updates.

My particular thanks go to:

Mandy, Rod and Corey for updates and bringing families up to date.  To Tim for a very interesting story about two handkerchiefs.

I hope many people get in touch with David (see previous blog) and I look forward to his article on James Henry Greathead.

I ordered my first certificate in a long while, a marriage certificate.  Sadly it did not solve my brickwall, just added even more layers. 

I continue to try to resolve the George Greathead/Ada Ellwood query.  If YOU can help please do let me know, no matter how small the clue. 

Have a happy summer

Can you help with a J H Greathead website?

I have been contacted recently by a retired head teacher who is very interested our very own James Henry Greathead III.
I agreed to forward the following and hope someone can help him:

Can you help with a J H Greathead website? Do you have any J H Greathead heirlooms in the attic?
David Lumb BA (Oxon), MA (Oxon), MSc (Sheffield)
contact david@kinderclan.co.uk or David Lumb 10 Hogarth Rise Dronfield S18 1QG

I am contacting you with permission from Jan Cooper (née Greathead) with a request for your help.
I am planning to build a website on the sole subject of James Henry Greathead, the engineer. I will incorporate all material I can find on his life and achievements. This will be free access and available to be shared by all, though anything you request as confidential will be treated strictly as such. These days writing a book is less fashionable and I have no need of the income. So publishing free to the web seems the best way to celebrate a man who I feel is an unrecognised genius. Clearly much material is alreadily available through the web, including Jan's own www.greathead.org.
However I have almost nothing which is personal: private letters, photos, artefacts. For example, many families never throw away old letters and pass them on from generation to generation, hating to throw them away. When JHG addressed a parliamentary sub-committee to persuade them to allow permission for the first underground, he is recorded as showing them a brass model of his tunnelling shield. I imagine that would never be thrown away. Years ago, whilst in Grahamstown (his birthplace), a curator told me of a typewritten document from the 1930s by a direct descendant, discussing the hard life of an early pioneer. I guess that will not have been thrown away either.
So what I am asking you is this: do you have available any material that would help me: letters, photographs, artefacts? If so do please let me know about them. In this way John Henry's deserved fame might be enhanced and celebrated.
Thank you.
David Lumb

Website updated 1 May 2016

Website updated today ready for 1 May.


I visited WDYTYA with a dear friend but sadly I was very unwell and must have looked and behaved like a zombie.  Apologies to those I met on the day.  It took a couple of weeks to get better, but now I am fighting fit again, or as fit as I will ever be............

This month I have communicated with many people to thank in no particular order:

Jennifer for all the details about 'our Thomas'
Tony, my gene pal who always comes up trumps with new information
Ann who sent me some old wills
Miriam who offered help
Phil and Sue correcting my geography and sending new information
Rod alerting me to a death, where I managed to get a newspaper article to confirm and telling me Joseph was visiting his Aunt - I had not noticed them at the same location.  Memo to myself LOOK at census returns more closely
David for stretching my lateral imagination to help resolve a query or at least suggest the next way forward
Tracey for bringing he branch up to date and allowing me access to her Ancestry tree
Joanna for offering information, she is checking with her Mum and coming back to me
Anna who went for a stroll one lunchtime and found a gravestone, too a picture and sent it to me
Liz who told me of an extra marriage
Val with whom I discussed a Canadian Greathead
Irene with some South African information
Julianne who is hoping to come to UK next year

and many more on facebook, sorry if I have missed you off this list

Look forward to meeting more of you and exchanging emails

Website updated 1 April 2016

Family traumas have sadly meant I am not as up todate as I should be. Apologies.  The website was updated on 1 April 2016.

I have received several new births to add to my personal database.  That is where the information will stay as no living narratives are on the website.  However please continue to send the information as it brings the families up to date and makes the information complete.  Future generations will be very pleased you did.

Thanks to Phil for adding grave pictures to Find a Grave website and alerting me, all added to website.

 Thanks Val for getting me to research Ada Ellwood again.  Sadly out queries have not been resolved.  Maybe soon.  Definitely a problem to research through again in due course

The usual odds and sods have been updated and sourced more.  Always good to prove information from several different sources

I have started searching some newspapers in Find my past and British Newspapers, hopefully I can add some stories discovered from newspapers next month

Thank to those who have written kind words