Welcome to the Colclough One Name Study. Colclough, my maiden name, has always intrigued me, as living in New Zealand it is not a common surname. My father, Leonard Leighton Colclough, spent his 100 years of life having to both pronounce it and spell it on a regular basis. Our Colclough family here in New Zealand is a small one, with only my two nephews to carry the name forward. My grandfather, Charles Massey Colclough, hailed from Staffordshire which is where the surname is said to have originated. He came out to New Zealand at the age of 23 years, on the 'Athenic', departing London for Wellington in November 1912. My grandmother, Maud Weston had arrived in New Zealand with her sister Sarah in 1911 and Grandfather Charles followed her to New Zealand. They married in Hawera, New Zealand, in 1916 before he went off to WW1 with the New Zealand Defence Force. My father was born in 1922, their only child. I have had two stints of living in the UK - back in the 1970's for 4 years and then from 2012 - 2015 which only deepened my interest in my chosen surname study. Two interesting points came from this; firstly when I visited the Potteries area of Staffordshire where my family lived over the centuries and where I still have relations, I was amazed how many Colcloughs there were, something I had never encountered before. I also discovered the Irish branch of the Colclough family - not mine unfortunately, but very interesting. I had the opportunity to visit Ireland in 2013 and spent a number of days down in County Wexford where this particular branch of the Colclough family lived at Tintern Abbey for over 400 years. In Ireland, Colclough is pronounced and spelt Coakley/Cokeley as according to the charming guide at Tintern Abbey Colclough wasn't easy to say, or spell, so its pronunciation and spelling had changed over the years since Anthony Colclough, an officer from Blurton, Staffordshire, in King Henry VIII's army, was granted the property in the 1540's. However, it wasn't until 1567 that he established his title at Tintern and set about converting the tower of the abbey church into a fortified residence. There are many interesting personalities in this branch of the Colcloughs. My family history journey started back in 2009 and now some 13 years later I feel I can start on the Colclough surname as a whole study. I am beginning in New Zealand and shall branch out across the world. Looking at FamilySearch, Findmypast, Ancestry and other records, there are Colcloughs in many countries - New Zealand, Australia, Canada, USA, the UK and Ireland, and other places which I have glimpsed but need to look at in more depth. I would be delighted to hear from anyone with Colclough connections.