INTRODUCTION
My research into the surname 'Pakes', began in July 1995 when good intentions and hazy ambitions began to form reality. For several years I had talked about tracing my ancestry back, primarily along the male line, with the intention of trying to trace the origins of the name 'Pakes'. I have received many comments that the name is unusual, or uncommon. Admittedly I have only come across three cases, outside of my own family, when the name has cropped up. The first occasion was some 45 years ago while at school, where there was a Mark Pakes in my class at Tennyson Road County Primary School in Luton. My recollection also accounts for an elder brother, Paul. Secondly having joined the Diplomatic Service I have occasionally received misdirected letters for D Pakes, husband of S (Sybil?) Pakes, a Security Officer in the Service. Finally, a few years ago, I read about a Reverend Pakes who resided near Teddington in London.
I had to start my research from a very low knowledge base. Unfortunately I failed to cash in on the wealth of family knowledge known only to my Grandmother, Marjorie, and my Great Aunt, Nellie. Consequently when both of them died in the last 25 years, they took some very valuable genealogical information with them. My father died in 1995, a victim of several strokes, and not particularly reliable with his information. There remains Michael, my uncle and my father's younger brother, and his cousin Eileen, both will need to be spoken to and hopefully faint memories can be turned into substantiated facts.
It soon became very clear that there was very little anecdotal information available in the families collective memory.
So, what is known of the Pakes' line? First of all myself, born 8 May 1949 in the Chase Nursing Home, Stopsley in Luton. I had a sister, Suzanne Mary, born 13 March 1953, also in the Chase Nursing Home, Sadly Suzanne passed away on 18 Aprill 1993, dying of Cancer, leaving a husband - Ray Foreman. Our parents are Stuart Arthur John and Louisa Ellen (nee Southey), born 6 March 1927 in Luton, and 28 December 1926 in London respectively, and married on 6 March 1948 (my father's 21st birthday).
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