Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone, just wondering if anybody can help, i started researching my family tree and now my partner has got into it too. His grandad is called Harold Cockayne year of birth is 1923, i think from the sheffield area, he has tried to do some searching and found a George Albert Cockayne from 1900's who he thinks could be a his great grandad.... Harold married Edna Whitehead est dob 1930, and George married Violet May Cooper... Any info would be a great help thankyou.... Denise

The only way to be sure is buy the birth cert for the grandfather.......that will tell you the full names of his parents. Not a good idea to 'think' a person may be related, as you could waste a lot of time and effort in following the wrong line.......... Reg

Looks promising.........birth reg'n OND 1923 Thorne 9c/1574 Cockayne Harold, MMN Cooper The marriage cert for Cockayne/Cooper will provide the names and occupations of their respective fathers..........with those details you can search on censuses.............. Reg

Thanks Hellen. Denise

Births Jun 1897 Cockayne George Albert Barnsley 9c 260 Births Dec 1900 Cockayne George Albert Sheffield 9c 585 Births Jun 1897 Cooper Violet May Rotherham 9c 731

Thanks Reg, Any info is much appreciated... Denise

Hi Denise This is probably a total red herring, but if you are not from the Sheffield area you may not know that there used to be a very nice department store in the centre of Sheffield called Cockayne's. I am not sure when they opened - certainly there by the 1950s and I suspect much earlier. They closed down about the 1980s sometime. It's not that common a name, there might be some connection with the family you are researching. Tina

Cockaynes shut down a bit earlier than the 80s I think. Wasn't it the one that turned into Schofields? Where Argos is now? My Mum always used to call the shops by their 'old' names when I was little, Pauldens for Debenhams, Walsh's for Rackhams and Cockaynes for Schofields.

Having googled for Cockayne's, it seems that they started sometime prior to 1875. I had no idea that they had been around that long. Somewhere in the depths of my piles of long-forgotten junk there is probably one of their paper bags - shall have to see if it says 'established .....' on it! But I cannot find when they became Schofields. However, I shopped there just prior to my marriage in 1975 and I am sure they were still Cockayne's at that time. Tina

Was Cockaynes the shop where they had chairs arranged in a sort of arc in the restaurant, with little tables attached to each chair-arm, and salt pots and cutlery all engraved with the shop name? Or was that Walsh's? It was a long time ago when I was about 10 that we used to go on semi-regular visits. :-) My great aunt, who died in 1990, used to pronounce it 'Coe-Kaynes' (as in Sebastien Coe) because she said Cock-kaynes was rude! lol

Been googling about the stores and finally found the answer 'Cockaynes' stood in Angel Street; a main street of Sheffield, and remained in the family. until 31 October 1973 when it became 'Schofields..... I thought it was sometime in the 70s because I remember being one of the winners of a 'Sheffield Star' newspaper competition as a kid (Gloops Club if any Sheffielders remember) and we had to meet in the Schofields cafe to collect our prizes. I would have been 7 years old when Schofields took over Cockaynes, which seems to fit with my memory of the competition. Perhaps the drink and a bun in the newly opened cafe was part of the prize? I don't remember that bit but still have the book I won.

Thank you everyone for all your info, i will get my partner to look into it and ask his family to see if they know anything.. Thanks again Denise