When We were English, Part XIIL

A Visit to Fred Cooper of Bristol, England - a Hollyman Family Researcher Extraordinaire by Glenn N. Holliman 

As I have written on more than one occasion, meeting and visiting with cousins, near and far, is one of the delights of family history.  Thanks to a generous introduction by Bob Hollyman-Mawson, an English cousin who lives in Wales, my wife and I enjoyed a November 2011 day touring with Fred Cooper, a retired engineer, living in Bristol, England.

Although the showers flowed from the heavens during much of our expedition, we all three enjoyed a pub lunch and looked upon the many monuments of Hollymans in Somerset who have lived before us.

In 2011, Fred Cooper with an ubiquitous British umbrella led us on a fascinating tour of various cemeteries and parish churches where his wife's ancestors, Hollymans, are resting.  This photo was taken at the parish church in Abotts Leigh on a hill overlooking the Gordano Valley.

Fred's late beloved wife, Sheila Wallace Cooper, is a Hollyman, descended through her mother, Caroline Hollyman Wallace, late of Abbots Leigh, a small farming community west of Bristol, Somerset, England.


Right, Fred and Sheila on their wedding day in the 1952. It proved to be a most happy marriage producing two surviving sons. Sheila's grandfather was Alfred William Hollyman and great grandfather, John Hollyman.  All were farmers living in the community of Abbots Leigh in Somerset.   

Since the 1700s, this family of Hollymans have lived also in other Somerset villages such as Kenn, Clevedon and Clapton overlooking and in a picturesque valley known as Gordano.  Today the busy M-5 runs through the lush green valley south to Devon.

In the 1800s, part of the family crossed the Severn Estuary, and settled in Wales, ancestors of Peter Hollyman of Pwllheli, whose story and pictures were displayed in an early blog article.  (Go to the Archives feature of this blog and type in Peter's name to refresh one's memory.)

Below the map helps our understanding of places.  X marks the location of Abbots Leigh, just west of Bristol, England.  Further west and south is Clevedon, where another major Hollyman branch settled and thrived.  The body of water bordering Clevedon is the Severn Estuary which divides England from Wales.  Note the major motorway, the M5 running north and south through the Gordano Valley.

 Next post we continue to explore Hollyman sites in Somerset....

When We Were English, Part XIL

A Visit with Distant Cousins
by Glenn N. Holliman

After visiting Bob Hollyman-Mawson in Carnarvon, Wales, United Kingdom in November 2011, he and I drove over to the quaint village of Porthmadog to rendezvous with a retired chemist (that's a pharmacist in the U.S.), another Hollyman.  Peter Hollyman's family left Somerset in the 1800s and moved to Cardiff and other cities across the channel from England.

Peter Hollyman on the left below and Bob Hollyman-Mawson do what Englishmen do when in Wales (or England or Scotland) and that is enjoy a glass of bitter at lunchtime.  This picture and others were taken in Porthmadog which lies at the foot of the Snowdonian mountain chain.

Peter is retired after a career as chemist and owner of several shops.  His grandparents hail from Somerset, but the family moved to Cardiff in the 1800s.  In time, Peter matriculated at the University in Cardiff, Wales majoring in pharmaceutics.  After a stint in London, he moved his growing family west to Wales in the middle 1970s.

Below, three distant cousins in Wales on a blustery day in November 2011.  Left to right and enjoying life after six decades are Bob Hollyman-Mawson, Glenn Holliman (the writer of this blog) and Peter Hollyman.

What I learned from Peter is, that like Bob, his family came out of Somerset near Bath, England.  Unfortunately the family research cannot take either back past the early 1600s.  Question - how are the Somerset (and now Welsh Hollymans) related to the Holymans of Buckinghamshire in the 1500s?  Did the Rt. Rev. John Holyman (1495-1558)  take along some nephews with him when in 1554 he assumed the Episcopate in the Diocese of Bristol?  Bob has some hints he and I will share later in other posts.

Another theory is that Hollymans in Worcestershire floated down the Severn River (easy enough to do) and landed in Somerset.  As I wrote last year in this space, we have records of Hollymans (spelled several ways of course) inhabiting the west country of England.

Below, Peter Hollyman points to Transportation Island in the Porthmadog bay where ships used to drop their ballast and load Welsh slate from the Snowdonia mountains.  Peter is pointing also to the east, and to the east I drove to learn more about the Somerset Hollymans.

In later writings, more about our United Kingdom roots thanks to cousins such as Bob and Peter....