TracingMySteps.com

Christmas came early yesterday when I received a long awaited document in the mail:  my maternal great grandmother’s birth certificate.  Within the hand-written notations was the one bit of information that has brought me great joy, and opened the door for hours of endless information gathering.  I now know her mother’s maiden name.

Lest this seem an unremarkable event, let me back up and explain my previous frustration.  Much research has been done on my mother’s paternal side of the family, the Lawrences, but little to none has been accomplished on her maternal side, namely the Coopers and Locks.  I had found some success on the Lock family, discovering the names of my great grandfather’s siblings, a fascinating and tragic story of the war deaths of three of his brothers.

Birth Certificate for Florence Mary Cooper, 1854

Unfortunately, I had not been able to break the code of his wife’s ancestors, the Coopers.  The breakdown was in learning the maiden name of my great-great grandmother.  After much web-surfing, I found a web address for the parish where she was born, and one step leading to another, was able to order her birth certificate.  There it was:  her mother’s name, Mary Ann Cooper, formerly Oakley.

My mother was born in England, and consequently, all research must be done in records that are far away and over the pond.  Ancestry.com has good access to many of these records, but doesn’t come cheap;  I joined anyway, without regret.  Thanks to the many census records that I have found there, I am now able to piece together a kind of love story, not unlike the British period romance films I love so much.  I shall try in my humble way to weave the tale of how my great grandparents came to know each other.

Mary Ann Oakley was born circa 1853 in Southampton, England to James and Mary Ann Oakley.  She had one sister, Martha, who was two years younger, unusual in a time when most families had many children.  In 1861, at the age of seven, the family is living in St. Mary Civil Parish in Southampton, but without the father, James, who I assume has died. The next we learn of Mary Ann, she is a teenager, aged 17, and living in the home of Elizabeth Bardon as a general servant.  It was not uncommon for the lower classes to seek out a position as a servant in those days, as it provided a place to live, food to eat, and a small income that would often be sent back home to help provide for other family members.  Elizabeth Bardon is listed in the 1871 Census in All Saints Parish, Southampton as unmarried, age 64, a dressmaker, and head of her household.  She shares her home with three sisters, and three nieces.  Mary Ann Oakley is the only servant in this house full of women, which is probably fortunate, as many young servant girls were regularly abused for the sexual gratification of the male head of house.

Living in what I assume is the same or nearby district of South Stoneham Parish, the town of Portswood, All Saints Ward, in Southampton is a young man named John Cooper.  The 1881 Census of this district reveals that John is 22 years old, living at home with his parents, Robert and Susannah Cooper, and one sister aged 18, named Rosa (an unusual sounding name for someone British – but that is just my gut reaction).  He and his father have occupations listed as “jobbing gardeners”, and probably traveled from one estate to the next seeking out whatever landscaping work was available.  It is during one of these expeditions that I believe John Cooper met Mary Ann Oakley, most likely while doing a job for Elizabeth Bardon.

They married in 1882 in Southampton.  John was 23 years old, and Mary Ann was 28.  I’d like to imagine she was either really beautiful or amazingly charming to have beguiled a man at least five years younger than herself into marriage.  I would not like to assume they married because she was pregnant, but it was also not uncommon, and a son named John Thomas Cooper was born in 1883, in Portswood.

One year later, the little family has moved to Saint Mary Extra Parish in Woolston,

Florence Mary Cooper

Southampton and welcomed a daughter, my great grandmother, Florence Mary Cooper on December 30, 1884.  Mary Ann does not register Florence’s birth until February 1885, and this explains some of my difficulty in finding her records.  Two more sons, William and Robert, each two years apart, would eventually complete the family.

Tragedy would follow this family, for the next time we find Mary Ann Cooper and her children, she has married a man named Ernest Wyeth, and has moved to St. Nicholas Parish, the Village of Lavant in Sussex County.  It appears that her first husband, John Cooper, has died young, and I have not yet found any information regarding his death.  This move to Sussex plays a key role in the future meeting of my great grandparents, for this is the same county that Florence Cooper’s future husband, Jack Lock, has been raised.

They marry in 1909 at the Church of St. George, located in Worthing, Sussex County.  Jack Lock’s occupation was listed as a “basket maker” and Florence Cooper, at the grand old age of 24, was listed as a “spinster.”  They eventually created a family of five children, two boys and three girls, one of whom was my grandmother, Ethel Maude Lock.  She was named after Jack Lock’s two sisters, Ethel Fanny Lock and Alice Maude Lock.

Jack Lock, left, Florence Cooper, center, and daughter Alice, right, walking by the seaside in Skegness, England.

By all accounts, Florence Cooper, also known as “Nanny Lock” to her grandchildren, was quite a character.  She could be stern and demanding;  I picture her as a Type “A” personality, and I am sure my genes are rooted deeply in her precedent.  Jack Lock was known by all as a gentle, kind and friendly man, greatly loved by his grandaughter, my mother.  Florence Cooper died in 1964 at the age of 79.  Jack Lock died in 1974 of cerebral thrombosis at the age of 90.  I regret deeply that I did not meet him when I visited England for the first time at age 14, but I look forward to that meeting in the future at our heavenly home.