Brian Whitehead

Ancestors

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Biography

Brian's birth was registered in the Oct-Nov-Dec quarter of 1962 in the Wirral district.^[1]

Brian's marriage to Elizabeth C Hill was registered in the Jan-Feb-Mar quarter of 1999 in the Cambridge district.^[2]

Elizabeth's marriage to Brian H Whitehead was registered in the Jan-Feb-Mar quarter of 1999 in the Cambridge district.^[3]

I am Brian Howard Whitehead - and the family's amateur genealogist!

I was born at Clatterbridge Hospital in Bebington on the Wirral on 6 October 1962. My parents were Timothy Whitehead (26 April 1933 - 7 December 1989) and Thayer Conley (7 July 1936 - 2 June 2017).

My parents met on a cruise ship, RMS Caronia in 1959. My father was a merchant navy officer with Cunard and my mother was, at the time, travelling around the world on Caronia, with her older sister, Madeleine Kimball Conley (1929-2015) (known in the family as Kimmie) and their mother, Madeleine (Kimball) Conley (1897-1975).

My parents, Thayer and Tim, married on 16 December 1959. My older sister, Diana (Whitehead) Barden, was born on 27 May 1961 at Clatterbridge Hospital in Bebington and my younger sister, Jennifer (Whitehead) Sanders was born in Guildford, Surrey on 26 September 1964.

After a brief spell living in the Wirral with my parents and paternal grandparents (I believe) we moved temporarily to a rental house on the south coast of England and ultimately to a newly-built house in Cranleigh, Surrey.

My father left his job at Cunard in 1961 and went through a series of different selling jobs before purchasing a farm in West Sussex in 1967. The farm comprised mainly livestock including (from recollection) around 100 cattle, pigs and thousands of chickens. My father studied farming whilst on the job, but was assisted by a farm manager who came with the farm. I recall my father rising at any time from 4am to milk the cattle and my mother produced cream and unpasteurised milk at the farm's creamery. My father and other farmhands distributed the produce to local customers in neighbouring towns and villages and I recollect going with him on occasion. Together with my sister, Diana, we went to school briefly at Hollycombe in Milland. However, after a couple of years, my father decided to sell up the farm (due to back problems brought on by the physically-demanding work), and we moved to a bungalow in Hindhead, Surrey.

By this time my father had become a sales manager for a Birmingham-based (England) computer and business systems company, Kalamazoo, where he remained through to his retirement in 1983. Whilst living in Hindhead I initially went to a private prep school called 'The Heights' in Haslemere, Surrey but by the time I was settling in (a very long time!) we were again on the move so I was removed from the prep school for a few months and went, with my sisters to a local state primary school, Beacon Hill near Hindhead before leaving for the Midlands.

We moved to Fladbury, a small village in Worcestershire on 5 October 1971 - the day before my ninth birthday. I remember it clearly as our new house backed onto the River Avon, and I was given my first fishing rod. It was only months later that I realised, having never fished before, being given a rod with a hook without a barb on the end, I was never going to catch any fish! We stayed at Fladbury for the most formative years of my youth, ultimately moving to Twyning in Tewkesbury on Live Aid day in 1985. However by this time I had not only left my subsequent schools, but also higher education.

More to follow/...

• First-hand information. Entered by Brian Whitehead at registration and subsequently when updating the biography.

Sources

1. ↑ Birth Registration: "England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007"
   General Register Office; United Kingdom; Reference: Volume 10a, Page 1082; Volume Number: 10a; Page number: 1082
   Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 8782 #93915597 (accessed 26 October 2023)
   Brian H Whitehead birth registered Oct-Nov-Dec 1962 in Wirral, mother's maiden name Conley.
2. ↑ Marriage Registration: "England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005"
   General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 331; Page: 305
   Ancestry Record 8753 #6906617 (accessed 26 October 2023)
   Brian H Whitehead marriage to Elizabeth C Hill registered Jan-Feb-Mar 1999 in Cambridge.
3. ↑ Marriage Registration: "England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005"
   General Register Office; United Kingdom; Volume: 331; Page: 305
   Ancestry Record 8753 #4598139 (accessed 26 October 2023)
   Elizabeth C Hill marriage to Brian H Whitehead registered Jan-Feb-Mar 1999 in Cambridge.