Ivy CUMPER, John CUMPER residents 1936 to 1998 (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Friday, May 26, 2017, 16:34 (2526 days ago) @ Cumper

Hi, you're very welcome and am glad you found it of help. I'm especially glad that I wasn't telling you too kuch of what you already knew, ie his Chepstow roots. I intended to go cautiously and await your feedback, but as usual got a bit carried away last night as mechanical engineering was my trade so anything like this interests me, and also ships too, heaven !. After I'd posted I suddenly wondered if in fact you already knew his Chepstow background, so thanks for confirming you hadn't !. (Your post suggested you didn't know that, but sometimes we get posters who inadvertently don't let-on what they already know, which can occasionally be a little frustrating altho of course its' good to have an independent researcher confirm one's own findings).

May I ask are you in the UK, perhaps West Midlands ?. If so, then it's only a short jaunt to the Forest and I can recommend it as a place to visit and get to know a little, we often have posts from the across the world and so many descendants of Forest miners & metalworkers travel thousands of miles to visit the beautiful Dean. Meanwhile please visit the rest of this website as it contains a great many old maps, photos, etc which may help you better get to know the FoD area and your ancestors.

One of my close friends since early schooldays etc in the 60s Forest used to amuse us as she regularly had a cousin visit in the summer holidays. David (pronounced Daividd) laughed at our Forest dialect and we did his Brummie one, all in good nature I may add. It was only years later I found my friend's mum had been evacacuated to the Forest from Birmingham, and eventually settled here. Sadly she passed away in 2009, a great family friend and much-loved local pillar of the Community, "despite" being a Vurriner as we used to call anyone from outside the area ("foreigner" in FoD speak).
Thanks again for your interesting post and kind words, and I'll keep looking for clues as to where John worked, although unfortunately being C20th century there aren't as many Trade Directories etc online compared to Victorian times, which are great sources of info of this type.
Please, if you have any more questions re the area or your ancestors, just search this forum as often others will have asked the same questions (esp tourism etc), or just post again on this thread and we'll do our best to help.

Off now to think about "electrical pattern makers", personally I think of GEC as makers of large electric motors, altho they were also in heavy engineering such as railway locos etc so... ??...

atb J