About the Guild: Members Stories

Robert Sterry

Pickard Trepess

Fred Pendlebury

Margaret Whitaker

Ainslee Hooper

Members' stories

My Story: Ainslee Hooper

The Hooper One-Name study

I commenced researching my family history in 1999 at the age of 21 whilst I was unemployed. At first I thought I would do it until I found some work and then be bored with it. Nearly 5 years on, and over 4,000 individuals later, I’m still passionate about my hobby. Most friends my age can’t understand why I find genealogy so interesting.

As I was growing up, our family never had much to do with my father’s side of the family, except for his parents who lived next door to us. So I never knew too much about the Hooper family. That is why these days I feel it is important to find out as much as I can about my family, so that I can pass it onto other family members and people who are interested, to keep the history alive, and to make sure that it doesn’t die when the family does.

My father passed away in 2002, and ever since I have endeavoured to find out anything I can on the Hooper family from all over the world. When I first started I was warned what a huge name it was population wise, and the contributions that I have received via the hooper-ons-l@rootsweb.com mailing list that I run have been amazing.

So far I have found Hoopers in England, Canada, Australia and the United States of America. The information given to me, along with the line I am researching myself seem to go back as far as the 1600’s so far, but according to other sources I have read, the name goes back to 12 th century.

My website www.ainsleehooper.com has a section dedicated to all the individuals that have been sent to me by other researchers, and people can email the person researching a particular individual to hopefully find a match. So far, my research is only in its early stages, as I have been lucky enough to be kept busy with people donating their information to me. I’m yet to devote some time to the various resources available from CDs, websites and research centres. The idea is overwhelming yet exciting. It’s always exciting to find new information, which I am positive I will continue to do for many years to come.

Ainslee Hooper
Victoria , Australia
Member 3895