Geoff Nicholson RIP

It is with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Geoff on 28 June 2021. He was a founding member of the current Washington History and the immediate Chair before myself. He was also a founding member and past Chair of the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society. Geoff was born in 1942 and brought up in Ryton and gained a physics degree at Hull University. He met his wife, Pat, there and moved to Washington in 1971, residing in Manor Park, Concord for the rest of his life.

He worked as an engineer with a number of leading north east companies including a period as a technical editor. However his passions were local and family history and in the 1990s set himself up as a professional genealogist, producing over 3,000 pedigrees for clients worldwide. Perhaps the most famous was the one he produced for Hillary Roddam Clinton; the American First Lady from 1993 to 2001, and Secretary of State 2009 to 2013, listing her Tanfield and Stanley ming ancestors, who, for a time, lived at Blackfell, and so were parishioners of Holy Trinity. He sent it to the White House and published in the NDFHS Journal. In 2017 I mentioned this to the US Ambassador when he visited Washington Old Hall, and insisted I send it to him. I found a poor copy online which I would have to tidy up or rescan. Bizzarrely my phone rang; it was Geoff about a completely different matter! I stunned him by telling him I had his very article on screen. He graciously sent me an updated clean pedigree, which I forwarded to the US Ambassador. In turn he sent it to Hillary, who sent lovely reply promising to visit Washington.

Geoff is survived by several cousins, his son Richard, daughter in law and grandchildren. His wife, Pat, suffered a severe stroke in 2016 and lives in a Washington care home. Geoff visited her every day, apart when COVID restrictions prevented it. His furneral took place on 14 July, back at the Holy Cross Church, Ryton, where he had been baptised 79 years earlier.

Ged Parker