Having an unusual surname I have often wondered where the name originated. I grew up near Bournemouth on the south coast of Britain and knew that my grandfather lived in London but had little idea where his antecedents came from.
In the early 1990s I discussed this with a cousin, Sue, and she remembered that our grandfather had mentioned a village in Warwickshire called Tanworth. We went there a few days later and were surprised to find numerous instances of the surname in the parish registers. This was the start of a long investigation to discover the roots of the name.
For the last three decades I have been researching my own lineage although focussing on the paternal line to follow the surname through the ages. I have confidently traced the surname back to my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather John who lived near Tanworth in the late seventeenth century but from there the trail goes cold.
The results of this investigation were published in a booklet "Four Centuries of the Copage Line - from Warwickshire to London and Beyond".
Click here to download a copy of "Four Centuries of the Copage Line - from Warwickshire to London and Beyond"
During the early (pre-web) years of the internet I posted a query on a Usenet forum and was amazed to learn that the surname (or its variations) was relatively common in the USA and that there was even a Copage/Coppage Family Association.
In later years I came across instances of the name in Ireland and in Canada and was surprised to find records in France and Germany.
My grandfather Reginald Copage with his father George
So having investigated my own direct lineage, the next step was to explore where the surname came from and this site is the result.