(email: mgreato@jmgreatorex.freeserve.co.uk) and I live in North Yorkshire, England. I have been researching my family history since the mid 1990's. I have always been interested in History as such but the catalyst that sparked the interest in my family's origins was discovering that my Grandfather had been born in Philadelphia, USA. He had died when I was only about 8 and though I do have memories of him nothing suggested an American connection. However though my Father and Aunts knew of this fact it was never mentioned to me nor I suspect to any of my Greatorex cousins.

Over these years I have gradually uncovered my American family, met their present day descendents and even unearthed one American descendent living less than half  a mile from my present home here in North Yorkshire.

What I describe here represents in outline form the current state of knowledge about my family.

If you require further details please do not hesitate to contact me at the above email address. The earliest record I have finds a Christopher Greatorex being baptised on the 19th October 1788 in Blyth (Nottinghamshire) and being recorded in the Blyth Parish Registers. His parents were identified as Daniel and Elizabeth Greatorex of which little is known at this time.

Though the family is found to be living in North Nottinghamshire it is generally accepted that the origin of the name is found in Derbyshire. Even today the name Greatorex is fairly common in that County though some derivations are noted. GREATRIX/GRATRIX/GREATREX and so on.

The next page Generation1 will document the first generation descended from Christopher Greatorex.

Can I also point the reader to another website which deals with the family GREATOREX.

http://www.greatorexfh.org  This will be online for sometime but will be replaced by the following website

http://www.gretraches.org. Both created by David Greatorex to be a central point of reference/contact for other Greatorex researchers.

Updated 17th April 2006.