Moving day!

By Eddie | Published: April 11, 2011

This blog is moving over to the Roued-Cunliffe family history blog to clear up space on the roued.com domain. Please come over here and visit!

Take care,
Eddie

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Going to WDYTYA

By Eddie | Published: March 1, 2011

IMG_0071 1Last Saturday John and I had a great but extremely tiring day at the Who Do You Think You Are live show at the Olympia in London.
What did we we there? Well first of all I had a great chat with Marie Foden from First for Family History at the APG Association of Professional Genealogists) stand and Angela Aldam from Family Folios at the AGRA (Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives) stand about what it is like to be a professional genealogist. If that was all I ended up doing that day I would have gone away happy, but there was much more.
John had a little excursion of his own to the Military pavilion to see if he could learn more about his Grandfathers in WWII and he brought their military memorabilia. He came thinking that at least one of his Grandfathers has been in the RAF and went away with the knowledge that he had instead been in the Transport Corp. He thinks that the idea of the RAF came from his Grandfather talking about working with airplanes. As a child he might have extrapolated this to become working with spitfires and from here came the idea that he was in the RAF. But now we know that this was not the case.
While he was off doing this I went to the FindmyPast stand and had a good look through the 1911 census. I will do a separate post about this.
We also talked to a lovely lady, known as Dotty, from the N. Meols (Southport) FHS, who encouraged me to get onto their forum with my questions about the Longton/Bartons from Scarisbrick. She also taught me how to say Scarisbrick!
Finally, we managed to buy some different family history paraphernalia along the way. We got a big family tree chart and quite a few old maps (see below). We got some specific maps for Wigan and Ince and some larger old maps for the Liverpool/Manchester area.

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Posted in 1911 - UK, Census, England, Review | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Look-ups in the 1911 census

By Eddie | Published: February 23, 2011

Here is a list of things I would love to look-up in the 1911 census:

Janet Baldwins side of the family:

James Cunliffe’s side of the family:

Albert Ramsdale’s side of the family

Florence Doreen Beech’s family

Posted in 1911 - UK, Adlington, Baldwin, Beech, Census, Coppull, Cunliffe, Cunliffe family, Eastham, England, Fillingham, Ince in Makerfield, Lancashire, Longton, Lyon, Ramsdale, Research, Saywell, Stubbings, Westleigh, Wigan, Winstanley | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Going to Who Do You Think You Are show!

By Eddie | Published: February 23, 2011

My husband and I are moving to from the UK to Denmark this summer and this had made me want to do those big shows that we just don’t seem to have over there. Last year I got stuck into my husbands side of the family (the Cunliffes) and began doing family research in the UK. This was very exciting as all my previous research has been done in Denmark.

So now the Who Do You Think You Are show is only a couple of days away and I need to start thinking of what I want to get out of the day. I would like to find out a bit more about occupations in the Cunliffe family and I would also like to explore my own family’s American story a bit more as I think this is easier in the UK than it is in Denmark.

So here is a list of what I want to look closer at:

Coming to America:

I want to find out when and how and maybe even why Elene Kristine Roued immigrated to the US. Later censuses say it was in 1888 which makes her 18 years old. She doesn’t marry her Swedish husband in Chicago until 1894 when she is 24. So why does an 18 year old Danish/German girl go to America without any of her family? Was she alone? Was someone with her? Did she go straight to Chicago and did she meet her future husband there? So many questions and I am hoping to find someone at WDYTYA who can point me in the right direction. I have already been looking through ship records but haven’t found her anywhere yet.

Find out about Albert Ramsdale and his father Albert and their connection to the railways.

  • Albert Ramsdale was  a railway driver on the Springs Branch for British Rail. There is a great photo of him on Wigan World from 1980 driving the L&M Lion for the Rainhill celebration, but in the different books about Springs Branch where I have looked I find no mention of Albert.
  • Alberts father, Albert Ramsdale was a Railway Foreman according to the family stories. When he marries Clare Eastham in 1916 he is listed as a Stoker. But again I can’t find anything about him. He also worked in Wigan but before the Nationalization.  As you can see on the map there were quite a few railway companies going through Wigan.
  • James Ramsdale (Albert’s father) started out as a coal miner in his teens in Westleigh. He then married Catherine Lyon and together they moved to Ince-in-Makerfield where he begun to work for the railway. He is listed as Loco Engine Stoker in 1891 (age 29) and Engine Driver 1901 and 1906 (age 39-44).

Cotton industry:

You will notice that this is all young girls (only one is over 20), but that they occur in several different family branches. I would love to find out which factories they worked in and find out a bit more about what they did. Maybe even find some record of them.

Workers in the mines:

There are also quite a few mine workers I have found so far. Again i would like to find out where they worked – what it entailed. Maybe even some records of them.

  • Thomas Cunliffe was mentioned as Collier in 1852,  Collier in 1861, Miner 1871, Miner 1876 and Coal Miner 1881 in Wigan. He was working in the mines from 1851-1881 (age 25-54).
  • Henry Cunliffe (Thomas’ nephew) was mentioned in 1871, age 18 census as a miner in Wigan.
  • James Cunliffe (Thomas’ son) was mentioned as a Miner in 1871, Collier in 1876, Fire Dampman in Coal Mine in 1881, Coal Miner in 1891, Coal Miner Hewer in 1901, Collier 1908 in Ince-in-Makerfield, Wigan. He was working in the mines from 1871-1908 (age 14-51).
  • Thomas Cunliffe (James’ son) was Labourer at Coal Mine in 1891, age 14 in Ince-in-Makerfield.
  • William Cunliffe (James’ son) was Labourer in Coal Mine in 1891 and Coal Miner Hewer in 1901 in Ince-in-Makerfield (age 12-22).
  • Henry Cunliffe (James’ son) was Rolly Hooker Coal Mine Below Ground in Ince-in-Makerfield in 1901 (age 14) and probably up til he entered Loyal North Lancashire Regiment
  • Henry Eastham was Collier in 1889, Coal Miner in 1891, and they went on to own a Fish and Chips shop.
  • James Lyon was Coal Miner in Westleigh in 1881 (age 62) – he was probably working in the mines since he was around 15 but I just haven’t found him yet.
  • James Ramsdale was Coal Miner in Westleigh in 1881 (age 19). He then moved to Ince-in-Makerfield where he begins to work for the railway.

Shop keepers:

  • Henry Eastham is listed as a Fish and Potatoe Dealer at 222 Manchester Road, Ince, Wigan. He is still a shop keeper at this address in the directory of 1916.

Other work:

Farm workers:

  • Arthur Baldwin was a Cattleman On Farm in Adlington in 1901 (age 18).

Military Service:

  • Rodney Eastham (3rd Battalion, Grenadiers Guarde) Killed 31 July 1917 ‎(Age 21)‎ France & Flanders
  • Henry Cunliffe (10th Battalion, Loyal North Lancashire Regiment) Killed 28 April 1917 ‎(Age 31)‎ France & Flanders
Posted in England, Occupation, Research, USA | Leave a comment

Review: Victorian Pharmacy

By Eddie | Published: December 15, 2010

Victorian Pharmacy
by Jane Eastoe (foreword by Ruth Goodman), 2010
Pavilion

I am very much love the idea of bringing History to life through good story telling. The narrative enables the current living to better understand the lives of the people of the past. Obviously a narrative without dates and places become just another fictional story but in the same way dates and places themselves are not that interesting either.  The ability to extract a narrative from all the facts is one that I personally hope to become better at, but also one I do believe that Jane Eastoe has managed in her book ‘Victorian Pharmacy’.

The book is connected to the TV series staring Ruth Goodman, Nick Barber and Tom Quick. In the TV series they investigate the pills and potions of the Victorian era. Jane’s book follows this process and this makes a fascinating story.

The Victorian era spanned from 1837 to 1901 in other words the reign of Queen Victoria. So I am going to have a look at the family I know of who lived in Britain at this time and see if the book can help me elaborate on the facts I already know about this family.

Let’s first visit the Beech’s in Wigan. Joseph Beech married Rebecca Sampson in 1889 and between 1889 and 1899 they had 8 children of which 5 died before the age of 5. According to ‘Victorian Pharmacy’ this was often the case at the end of the nineteenth century. Children aged 0-5 accounted for 1/3 of all deaths in Victorian Britain. To add to the tragedy their mother Rebecca dies herself in 1900 only five days before the death of her youngest child.

In 1889-1892 one of several influenza pandemics in Victorian Britain swept across the country and carried of Queen Victoria’s grandson Albert Victor, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales. Up in Scarisbrick, Lancashire we have three children (the youngest 2, the oldest 9) of George Longton and Ellen Glover who died in December 1890. I think (but of course have no solid proof) that this influenza pandemic may very well have been the cause of this.

This is such an interesting book and it opened my eye’s to things that I had no clue about. The bits that have stayed with me is the stuff about malnutrition and pollution. When you visit London these days you do tend to wonder about the stories of the fog, but that’s because it hasn’t really been around for the last 50 years. But in fact the last fog in December 1952 went on for 4 days and killed around 4000 people. Apart from the danger of being out and about in a thick and brownish yellow, sulphurous smelling fog, it was also the cause of respiratory diseases, we learn.

The other interesting part in regard to malnutrition is that the idea of adding additives to food and drink is by no means a new one. This is something we often accuse the big burger chains of doing and I must admit that I myself  had this idea of good honest peasants food of olden days. But apparently it was quite common to add things like alum (a chemical often used in natural dyeing – as we demonstrate on Historic Crafts) and chalk to bread and mashed potatoes. It seems that this could be what lead to Rickets, especially in children. This was quite common in the South where coal was expensive and people were more likely to buy their bread, full of additives, from the bakers.  Whereas, in the north, where the coal was mines, it was cheaper to bake your own bread.

I think this book is a great addition to any family historians library as a look-up book of life and death in Victorian England.

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A start on the Beech Family

By Eddie | Published: November 26, 2010

Today I want to make another start on the Beech Family of Wigan. The ancestor to begin with is Florence Doreen Beech. I have found her siblings all born in the 1920s in Central Wigan, which tells us that her parents lived in Wigan at that point.

Her father is James William Beech (1891-1952) and her mother is Louie Florence Kelsall (1898-1982). I will get back to Louie a bit later and talk more about the Kelsall family then. For now let’s focus on the Beech family.

James was born and his parents lived at 6 Baileys Court on Hallgate. According to Wigan World’s street index for the time Baileys Court is what is now 31 or 33 Hallgate.

His parents were James Beech (1867- and Rebecca Sampson (1861-1900). Rebecca died young, in her 30s, in childbirth. Her burial record says 33 years but other records show that she may have been 39 at the time she died. We won’t dwell to much on her for now – she and her family will get a chapter for themselves.

They were married in 1889 at the Register Office in Wigan and with the help of Lancashire BMD, Wigan World’s Cemetary Index and Lancashire online parish clerk project I have pieced together a bit of their life together.

Here is a list of their children:

  1. Thomas (1889-1890)
  2. James William (1891-1951)
  3. Sarah Ellen (1892-1938)
  4. Hannah (1893-1893)
  5. Ethel May (1894-)
  6. Joseph (1896-1900)
  7. Albert (1897-1899)
  8. John (1899-1900)

As you can see the couple had 8 children in the short span of 10 years. Only 3 of which survived into adulthood. Sarah Ellen died 46 years old in a nursing home. I can’t find any Ethel May in the Lancashire burial records, which go up to 1975. Having said that Ethel May would only have been 80 in 1975.

The family were noted in the census of 1891 and James alone in 1901 after Rebecca’s death in 1900. In the first James is a China Dealer and in the second a Peddler. Family memory tells us that he was a tinker so this turned out correct. According to Wikipedia a peddler is a traveling vendor of goods. I can’t find any record of what a china dealer did. Apart from the obvious that they sold china. This is just  guess but maybe James sold china and other goods from home until his wife died and after that took to being a traveling salesman. He is still in Wigan in 1911 and dies there in 1920 but is not living in Baileys Court anymore. In fact he is living on 21 Mesnes Street when he died, which is the same address as his brother-in-law George Halliwell died age 56. In the 1911 census his daughter Sarah Ellen (age 19) is also living there together with her  aunt and uncle Emma and George Halliwell. There are many people living at 21 Mesnes Street so it was probably not their private home.

If we move on to the next generation of Beech Family we come across James’ parents Joseph Beech and Sarah Gibson. I am very sure about the surname of Gibson because this is the only Joseph Beech marrying a Sarah I can find in the 1850s in Lancashire BMD:

BEECH Joseph GIBSON Sarah Oldham, St. Mary Oldham CE235/13/85

Also I know the names of their children and their approximate time of birth from the census and there is only one Jane Beech born at the right time and she is born in Wigan to a mother with the maiden name Gibson:

BEECH Jane Wigan Wigan & Leigh GIBSON WIG/57/283

The oldest daughter, Hannah, is proving to be a bit elusive. The 1881 census tells us that she is born around 1857 in Ashton Under Lyne and that she is Joseph’s daughter. But I haven’t been able to find her at all. There are many possible explanations for this.

The list of their children looks like this:

  1. 1857: Hannah
  2. 1859: Jane
  3. 1861-1915: Charles
  4. 1864-1936: Emma – Married George Halliwell
  5. 1866-1920: James
  6. 1870-1942: Bertha – married John William Uttley
  7. 1875: Mary Ellen

Of Joseph and Sarah’s life we know that he started out as a potter age 17 in Ashton Under Lyne. They get married in 1854 in St Mary, Oldham. Sarah was born in Biddulph parish, Staffordshire in 1834 and thats all we know about her at the moment.We first meet the family in Wigan in the 1861 census where Joseph is an earthenware dealer and they live in 42 Hallgate. In 1869 Joseph is registered in the Wigan Directory as a china dealer still living in Hallgate in 1871. In 1881 the family have moved to 47 Mesnes Street.

After Joseph the trail goes a bit cold. The census that he appears in tell us that he is from Staffordshire, born in 1834. The problem with this is that none of the BMD records go back before 1837. We have found death records for them both that seem to confirm that they were born in or around 1834.

In the 1861 census we find that their eldest daughter Hannah is born in 1857 in Ashton Under Lyne which is not far from Oldham where they were married in 1854, also east of Manchester. Joseph was found in 1851 in Ashton Under Lyne living with his father Thomas and siblings. Thomas, Joseph and his older sister Susannah are all Potters and are all from Staffordshire, which is why I feel that this might be the correct Joseph. However, there is no mother in the census of 1851. I have found two marriages for Thomas Beech, but I am not sure they are the correct Thomas because of the Staffordshire connection from the census. The last marriage is to Mary and they have children, where the first names match those of the 1851 census. However, the dates of their births do not fit the census. So I must admit that I am left utterly confused with this part of the family.

Posted in Ashton Under Lyne, Beech, Cunliffe family, England, Lancashire, Wigan | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Some more Baldwins in Adlington

By Eddie | Published: November 25, 2010

Continuing the search for the Baldwins I got a tip off about Thomas Baldwin and Mary Ann Longton being in Coppull in the 1911 census so I headed over there and found them living at Holland st. in Coppull. With the same tip off, I found him with what I assumed were his parents Joseph and Jane in 1891 in Adlington. However, I could not be sure of this until I found out that they and their children moved to Coppull in time for the 1911 census. When I saw this I decided that it made it very likely that Thomas was actually their son. If I get my hands on either the parish record or certificate of Thomas’ marriage to Mary Ann Longton this will confirm or break the theory but till then I will trust this reasoning process.

I have located Thomas’ siblings through a combination of the census and Lancashire BMD and through the latter I have also found their mother Jane’s maiden name which is Saywell.

Jane Saywell is born in 1855 in Great Milton, Oxfordshire and her husband Joseph Baldwin is born 1855 in Worminghall, Buckinghamshire. This is the long list of their children:

  1. 1875: Joseph
  2. 1876: Stephen James
  3. 1878: Alice
  4. 1880: Mary Jane
  5. 1881: Ellen
  6. 1883: Arthur
  7. 1885: Thomas
  8. 1888: Minnie
  9. 1890: Elizabeth Ann (also known as Annie?)
  10. 1892: William
  11. 1894: Frank
  12. 1896: Henry
  13. 1898: Emily
  14. 1901: John

14 all in all and as far as I can see none that died in infancy. In the BMD I find that the eldest Joseph was born in Milton, Oxfordshire like his mother. This could mean that Joseph and Jane met in Milton and were married in Milton. The second son Stephen James was born in Pemberton, Wigan which we could take to mean that the family moved up to Lancashire in 1875 or 1876. There is a good concentration of Baldwins and also a couple of Saywell’s in Pemberton according to the parish records. Might they be family, which encouraged them to come up north. It is likely theory I feel.

The third child, Alice, was born in 1878 in Adlington as are all the remaining children. The parish records for this period are available for the local churches in Adlington but even so I have not been able to find any mention of Baldwin in neither the baptism, marriage or burial records. I did a countywide search and came up with one of the younger children, Frank (1894-), who was baptised in All Saints, Wigan. The record told us that the family were still living in Adlington. So why was Frank baptised in Wigan? Might there again be a family connection. There are quite a few other Baldwins and one or two Saywells in the All Saints records too but I have not been able to find records of any more of these children.

As for Joseph‘s work the census and the record of Frank’s baptism tell the story to an extent. The 1881 census tell us that Joseph is a shepherd living on Common End, Adlington. In 1891 and 1894 he is recorded as a Farm Bailiff living at Gardners House, Adlington.

A farm bailiff is someone who “made sure a tenant farmer ran the farm properly and was paying the rent on time” according to Hall’s occupation name index. He would basically be the foreman of a larger farm and the reference to Gardners’ house is probably a house on the grounds of this larger farm where Joseph lived with his family. As they lived at Common End in 1881 it is not a far leap to assume that he was already there working as shepherd for Adlington Hall and from there on to think that this is also where Joseph was a farm bailiff in the 1890s living in the Gardners House. Adlington Hall was from 1886 owned by the Dawbeny family but was bought by the Wigan Corporation in 1921 and demolished in 1960s. The only thing remaining is two lodge houses and twin Pillars standing at the entrance to Adlington Hall Park. (see more on Adlington Lancashire Early History)

Family memory only tells us that he is a farmer and we are not aware of his occupation when the family moved to Coppull between 1901 and 1911, but we know that Thomas is a farmer. We also know that Thomas was a teamsman on a farm in Adlington in 1901. From the 1901 census we can see that older brother, Arthur, was a Cattleman on farm. Older sister, Alice (age 23), was a Frame Tenter In Cotton Factory, which meant that she tended a cotton spinning machine. She was probably working in one of three spinners in Adlington at the time:  Thomas Gerrard and Son, Limited, Adlington Mill , Thomas Middleton and Co, Springfield Mill , or J. Unsworth and Brothers, Brook Mill.

Despite the close proximity to Adlington Old School the Baldwin children are more likely to have gone to school in the 1880s and 1890s in the National School on Park road. We know that it is likely that the Baldwin children went to school in Adlington as the eldest Joseph in listed in 1881 (age 6) as a scholar.
View Cunliffe family in a larger map

Posted in Adlington, Baldwin, Coppull, Cunliffe family, England, Lancashire, Saywell | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Cunliffe’s in Ince

By Eddie | Published: November 24, 2010

Parents name in Cunliffe Family Bible

Most of the information I have about this family is from the Cunliffe Family Bible and from census records of1881, 1891, and 1901
I can’t find the parish records as they are not on the otherwise wonderful Lancashire Online Parish Clerks Project website. But I have found some records recently on  Lancashire BMD.

James Cunliffe (1856 – AFT 1901) and his wife Margaret Winstanley (1849-1902) married 21 May 1876. They lived their married life in Ince in Makerfield, Wigan, Lancshire and had around 9 children together. Margaret had a daughter before they were married – Ellen.

I have found their children in BMD but this does not give me any more information other than that they were all born in Hindley parish. They are:

  • 1876: Thomas
  • 1878: William
  • 1880: Elizabeth
  • 1882: Jane
  • 1884: John
  • 1886: Henry
  • 1888: James
  • 1890: Joseph
  • 1892: Alice

Margaret Winstanley had a daughter before she was married to James: Ellen Winstanley. In the census we can see that Ellen came to live with his mother and step-father when they got married. In the 1891 census in Ince Ellen was a Reeler In Cotton Mil.

I have found James Cunliffe in the Lancashire BMD in 1856:

CUNLIFFE James Wigan Wigan & Leigh CATTERALL WIG/45/356

If this is true I have a new lead in terms of the  James’ mothers last name – Catterall.

Based on this assumption I found:

CUNLIFFE Thomas CATTRALL Elizabeth All Saints,Wigan Wigan & Leigh C33/11/219

According to this record the parents of James Cunliffe must be Thomas Cunliffe and Elizabeth Cattrall married in 1852 in All Saints, Wigan.

I then went on to look for some children of Cunliffe and Catterall: in 1852, 1854, 1859

CUNLIFFE Mary Ann Wigan Wigan & Leigh CATTERALL WIG/35/127
CUNLIFFE Catherine Wigan Wigan & Leigh CATTERALL WIG/40/182
CUNLIFFE Margaret Wigan Wigan & Leigh CATTERALL WIG/56/380

Persuing the Winstanley line I have found what I think is the birth of Margaret Winstanley in 1849 Wigan. Her mother’s maiden name is Winstanley according to the BMD.

WINSTANLEY Margaret Wigan Wigan & Leigh WINSTANLEY WIG/27/198

The only Winstanley and Winstanley marriage I can find in the Lancashire BMD is in 1848 in St Catherine, Liverpool.

Posted in Catterall, Cunliffe, Cunliffe family, England, Ince in Makerfield, Lancashire, Winstanley | Tagged | 2 Comments

Miners in Lancashire

By Eddie | Published: November 18, 2010

This is a little collection of the English miners in my husbands family. I have made a short summery of what I know about them and their job and I hope to be able to add to this with your help.

He is living in Ince in Makerfield, Wigan – I wonder what is the most likely mine he would be working in?

In 1881 he is a “Fire Dampman in Coal Mine”
In 1891 he is just a ‘coal miner’
In 1901 he is a ‘Coal Miner Hewer’

I need to figure out what these job title’s cover.

His sons John Cunliffe (1884-1965) and William Cunliffe (1878 – ?) also go on to be a coal miners.
James lives in Warrington Road and then later Knowles Street – I wonder is  any of these streets were connected to the mining industry?

Lived on Lord Street in Hindley, Wigan
In 1891 he was a coal miner
I am trying to figure out which mine he was likely to have worked in.

In 1881 he was a coal miner in Westleigh p, Leigh d
He first lived on Kirk Hall Lane and later on Briggs Street
I am trying to figure out which mine he was likely to have worked in.

He was also a coal miner in 1881 where he lived at Higher Hall in Westleigh – probably worked in the same mine too!

Again more questions than answers so if you know anything that can help do let me know in the comments or via email.

Eddie

P.S. I just stumbled upon the Coalmining History Resource Centre so I will do an update on this once I have checked if they have anything useful.

Posted in Cunliffe, Cunliffe family, Eastham, England, Ince in Makerfield, Lancashire, Lyon, Ramsdale, Westleigh, Wigan | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The search for the Baldwins

By Eddie | Published: November 18, 2010

Last time I mentioned the Baldwin’s it was in connection with Mary Ann Longton and her family. I still don’t have the marriage certificate or record for her and Thomas Baldwin but a Lancashire BMD search tells me that they married in 1908:

BALDWIN / Thomas / LONGTON / Mary Anne / Parish Church, Coppull / Preston, C12/2/56

BALDWIN / Janet / Chorley / Preston / LONGTON / CHO/127/60

I then decided that since I only knew of their daughter Janet and seeing as she came up in the BMD search I should have a go at finding other Baldwin children from Chorley whose mothers maiden name is Longton in the period between the parents marriage and Mary Ann reaching 45. So between 1908 and 1930. This is what I found:

In 1908: BALDWIN / Evelyn / Chorley / Preston / LONGTON / CHO/112/3
In 1912: BALDWIN / James / Chorley / Preston / LONGTON / CHO/118/98
in 1914: BALDWIN / Arthur / Chorley / Preston / LONGTON / CHO/123/2

If anyone else is researching the Baldwins or Coppull I would love to hear from you.

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Posted in Baldwin, Coppull, Cunliffe family, England, Lancashire, Longton | Tagged | 1 Comment