Coad Family

The story begins on a business trip to London, England in September of 1998, and a spur of the moment decision to find my family roots.

My name is Edwin E. Coad, III. I was born in New York City and spent my boyhood in Wilkes Barre PA. As a boy growing up, I was told by my mother that my grandfather, Edwin E. Coad, Sr. (1862-1950) immigrated to the U.S.A. from England; and that he hailed from the town of Coventry in Warwickshire. I never knew my grandfather or father; Grandpa died before I was born and my father died when I was just five years old, so this was the only information I had about the family. The family papers given to me by my Aunt Liz (Mrs. Elizabeth Coad-Hood, my father's sister) reiterated this family lore of Coventry as Edwin Sr.'s birthplace.

The London Trip 1998

The trip was earned through our family owned travel agency, Cruise & Vacation Depot. My wife, Cherie and I were invited by then President and COO of Norwegian Cruise Lines, Hans Golteus, to sail the maiden voyage of the newly re-constructed Norwegian Dawn. We were one of ten, top producing U.S. travel agencies selected for this momentous occasion. We were scheduled to board the cruise ship at the port of Dover in southeast England, then to cruise Northern Europe doing a Scandinavian/Russia itinerary, and then back to home base in London. The goal was to get first hand cruise experience onboard as a passenger and to tour the different staterooms, public venues and some of the amenities on this magnificent ship.

While in London, it turned out we were going to have a morning and afternoon free of business meetings. We decided to see if we could check out grandpa's home town of Coventry. Early the next morning we headed off and boarded a train to Coventry.

Coventry and The Book (British Telephone Directory)

Upon arriving at Coventry Station at about 9:15 AM, we headed straight to the town records office. We spent hours searching the records for grandpa Coad. Even with the kind help of the local curator, it was to no avail. There wasn't anyone with the surname COAD that ever worked or lived in Coventry in the middle 1800's. We left the Records Office at about 1:30 PM sadly disappointed.

We stopped in a pub to have lunch and while there my wife had a great idea, "...let's look in the phone book and see if any Coads are listed. Maybe if we can find a Coad they might be able to tell us something about the Coad family." I was particularly excited about this proposal as I had never in my life seen or talked to another person with the surname of Coad, other than my Aunt Liz. And, besides we didn't travel all this way to go home empty handed.

After lunch we went off to find a public phone booth, to find a phone directory to look up any Coads in the area. A few blocks away from the pub we spotted one of those cute red British telephone booths, but to our surprise, no telephone directory. Since this was only our second time in England we didn't know telephone books are not available at public phone booths. We went into a nearby restaurant, but no directory, someone suggested we try the American Express office in the Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre, where the statue of Lady Godiva resides. It was only a couple of blocks away from the pub, at the center of town. No luck at the American Express office either, so they suggested we try Waterstones Book Shoppe, a few shoppes away in the same Centre. The book shop seemed like our last hope to find the ever-elusive British Telephone Directory.

Eureka! A Twist of Fate and the Saga continues - Next Page