When Ian Cooper began investigating his family history, he chanced upon several policing links including an ancestor who was on duty at a notorious murder trial, he tells Claire Vaughan
The three men gaze into the camera, and behind them is what looks like a recreation ground or school field. The two on the left of the photograph stand as if to attention, but the chap on the right looks more relaxed – he has his hands on his hips and a slight smile on his face. Ian Cooper’s mother had always told him that the man in the middle was her “Grandpa, Nathaniel Allen, with two other policemen”, but when a newspaper story surfaced about the 100th birthday of one of Nathaniel’s daughters, its contents prompted Ian to start investigating his great grandfather in depth. He has uncovered links to notable events in Liverpool’s history, including a notorious murder trial. And there’s even a Jack the Ripper connection.
“I had known Grandpa Allen was a policeman for as long as I can remember. I still have his whistle,” says Ian, who lives in Southport in Merseyside. “Mum told me that he married a girl who lived up the road, whose father was also a policeman.
“I started investigating my tree in earnest following my retirement in about 2018. My Auntie Elsie had looked into our family history in the 1980s going back to her great grandparents, which gave me a great starting point. I also won some money on the Premium Bonds and bought a year’s subscription to Findmypast (findmypast.co.uk) to augment my research on Ancestry (ancestry.co.uk). My Findmypast membership allowed me to access the British Library’s collection of digitised newspapers.”
From records of civil registration and census entries, Ian had already discovered that Nathaniel was born in Liverpool in 1863 and married Mary Davis in Everton in 1887. The couple had four daughters: Lucy, Ian’s grandmother (born 1889), Emily (born 1893), Florence (born 1897) and Elsie (born 1900).
REGISTRATION CONFUSION
When Lucy reached 100 in 1989, the Liverpool Echo published an article about her. “Lucy Lloyd had trouble trying to convince everyone it was her 100th birthday yesterday,” it begins, “for her birth certificate says today is the day. The reason for the mix up is also 100 years old – the Maybrick Murder Trial at St George’s Hall, which forced Lucy’s father, a court clerk, to register her birth a day late.”
It was the first Ian had ever heard of Nathanie
