BJNL's GENEALOGY

I have previously written about the importance of turning oral family history and personal memories into w ritten remembered stories   so that they are preserved  for future generations. Here is a story of my own ... From as early as I can remember until I was about 10 years old, every summer we had a week's holiday in Mablethorpe. Mablethorpe is on the Lincolnshire coast of England.  We were living in Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire at the time.  I grew up in Melton Mowbray until the age of 13 when my family emigrated to New Zealand. I have many many memories of our holidays in Mablethorpe. One in particular stands out I was probably about 9 years old (so about 1962).  That year, like every other year at Mablethorpe, we stayed at a ‘Bread and Breakfast’ place and hired a chalet on the beachfront for use while at the beach during the day. This provided a place to store our buckets and spades and other beach apparel. A couple of months before, I had been given a ring for my birth

Thomas Coop circa 1898? Photo used with permission (1-3-2023). Collection of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum, H7 [Note: Permission of Toitū Otago Settlers Museum  must be obtained before any re-use of this image] Thomas Coop was born in Marylebone, London in 1838. You can read a little about his family background in my post about his parents  Thomas and Elizabeth - Marylebone to Australia . He arrived in New Zealand in 1861 from Australia. His family had travelled to Australia from England when he was 14 years old. You can read about his life in Australia and his move to New Zealand in my post  Thomas Coop - Youth to Early Adulthood . Appointment as Postmaster During 1873, Thomas was transferred to the Roxburgh telegraphic office and from 1 September 1873, took up the position of Postmaster/Telegraphist based in Roxburgh [1]. At that time Posts and Telegraphs were separate entities so, when Thomas commenced as the Postmaster for Teviot Post Office, he was charged with the operation of