Re: [CR] name search needed for an American that apprenticed in England

(Example: Framebuilders)

From: <greytaylor@att.net>
To: "classicrendezvous@bikelist.org" <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Subject: Re: [CR] name search needed for an American that apprenticed in England
Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 02:53:08 +0000


Doug, while I don't need to get in touch with this gentleman you are searching for, I will be interested in anything you find regarding Johnny's methods. I am the very happy owner of one of his bikes.

Thank you, Guy Taylor, Anaheim, CA

-------------- Original message from Doug Fattic <fatticbicycles@qtm.net>: --------------


> While looking through an old address book recently which I created to find
> British framebuilders, I rediscovered the name of the American that
> apprenticed at Johnny Berry's shop in Manchester during the summer of 1973.
> His name is Allen (or perhaps Alan) Wood. At that time he was probably
> somewhere around 19 years old which would make him 52 to 54 years old today.
> I would love to be able to talk to him because he could help me unlock the
> mysteries of how Johnny made frames.
>
> Is anyone on this list familiar with name search techniques available on the
> internet? I googled "name search" and a variety of possibilities pop up -
> most that charge and I would like to be able to filter the options down to
> what might work best. I did find in my initial search that there are 350
> people in the states named Allen Wood so this won't be easy. Years ago when
> I wrote this name down, the internet with it search engines wasn't available
> and I eventually forgot it was there since there was no way to find out
> where he was without more information.
>
> Johnny's son Don got a PhD and works in Indianapolis and his wife Ida is
> still alive at 99 years of age. However, neither of them paid much
> attention to how Johnny made frames and can't/couldn't answer my questions
> about his methods. I would love to know this since I ended up with much of
> Johnny's framebuilding stuff and I do know enough of what he did to realize
> he was one of England's masters. He was dedicated to quality rather than
> quantity.
>
> If anyone has some experience with name searching and can help me, I would
> appreciate any on or off list help.
>
> Thank you,
> Doug Fattic - with a lot of framebuilding stuff from Manchester now in
> Niles, Michigan USA