LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

Rossendale Branch Newsletter June 2008

** Please give your names to Leo Turner, if you wish to attend, so that transport can be arranged.

Coming Events

Saturday 21st June

The Chorley Branch of is holding the first of a series of Family History events for 2008 at Chorley Parish Church of St. Laurence, Union Street, Chorley from 10.30 a.m.- 4.30 p.m. Meet our Experts.

There will be information desks dealing with Adoption and Illegitimacy; Beginning Family History; Census Data; Civil Registration; Computers in Family History; DNA and Directories in F.H; Emigrants and Immigrants; Heraldry; IGI; Irish Research; Land Tax Records; Manorial Records; Maps; Military Research; Navy & Merchant Navy; Occupations; Old Handwriting; Parish Records; Interpreting Old Photographs, Quarter Sessions; RAF; Roman Catholic Records; Royal Marines; Scottish Research; Surnames Taxation Records; Wills and much more. Admission is free

Friday 12th September

The Society’s Annual Dinner

This year the Annual Dinner will be hosted by the Rochdale Branch. It is to be held at Rochdale Town Hall, the Esplanade, Rochdale OL16 1AB. The speaker will be Ian Tootell, MBE talking about the humour of police work. The menu and a booking form to reserve places at £19 per head, can be found in your May "Lancashire" journal.

Tuesday FH Advice Sessions at Rawtenstall Library 1.30 - 3.30

The Rossendale Branch is pleased to announce that there are now regular advice sessions at Rawtenstall Library. These commenced on the 20th May. We have arranged a rota of 10 members, of whom 2 or 3 will be on hand each week to assist members of the public. We may also be able to do simple look-ups for members not able to attend the library in person.

The Society’s Resource

Centre, 2 The Straits, Oswaldtwistle, The Society’s Central Resourse Centre is open each Thursday 1pm to 5 pm until further notice.

(200 yards from Oswaldtwistle Mills)

01254 2399919 (Answerphone)

Advice & Help with your research. Access to the Society’s Library; 4 computers with Internet Access & microfiche readers, the Society’s Pedigree Database; and opportunity to try out different programmes for recording Family History. etc Free Admission

See www.lfhhs.org.uk for details of additional opening times.

The Society’s E-mail Discussion Group The Society has an e-mail discussion group, called LFHHS Members Group, run through Yahoo!, to enable members to meet other members on-line, to seek and offer advice and support. Once signed up, members can receive e-mails from other members on the group.

To join, go to the Yahoo web site at www.yahoo.co.uk select "Groups". If you are new to Yahoo Groups, and are not a BT Internet subscriber, then "Sign-up" and complete the registration. Once signed up to Yahoo Groups you can subscribe (free) to the LFHHS Members Group by sending an e-mail with your name and/or membership number to:
LFHHS_Members-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk

It is recommended that you register with your usual e-mail address as the default address for receiving messages, otherwise they will go to a Yahoo mailbox. Further details for signing up and guidelines for using this service are available from the Membership Secretary at: membership@lfhhs.org.uk

Rossendale Miscellany:

News, notes and queries

Last month we had a very interesting talk by Wendy Watters of Bacup "Nats" Museum. Wendy showed us 155 historic slides, as she traced a journey from Bacup through Stacksteads and Waterfoot to Rawtenstall and on to Crawshawbooth. We saw the long-gone trams and shops with sides of meat hanging outside and we saw people, also long-gone whose names were regrettably not recorded at the time. Wendy runs a very interesting Bacup website www.bacuptimes.co.uk where you can see some of these photographs, also articles on the history of Bacup and Stacksteads.

We were also very pleased to welcome two members with Bacup interests who had come separately from Nottingham to listen to Wendy.

Historic Towns Website

I am often asked to recommend books on Rossendale by distant members. Last month I reviewed the new book by member John Simpson on the history of Musbury and Alden. Another member recently recommended some information that he had found online.

It has the longest web address I have ever seen

www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/archaeologyandheritage/historictowns/index.asp

If you google "Lancashire Historic Towns" it will get you to a check list of 34 areas in modern Lancashire, under the jurisdiction of Lancashire County Council. Each article is rather long and you may need Broadband to download the information. The Rawtenstall article was compiled in 2005, it covers 84 pages including the archaeological and industrial history of the town, together with photographs and several old maps and plans.

Newchurch Parish Registers -

Notes from the Margins The Rev. John Bartholomew Phillips was incumbent of Newchurch in Rossendale from 1850 - 1890. Towards the end of the 1860s, he commenced to jot down comments in the margins of the registers. Below are some of these margin notes taken from the burial register. Here is information you won’t find on the death certificates. I have listed the official entry first, followed by the comment.

George HOLT, Mill Gate, Nr. Rochdale 14th October 1867 aged 46

John INGHAM, Mill Gate, Nr. Rochdale 14th October 1867 aged 4

---- extra parochial, both done by Coroner’s Order

Andrew TAYLOR of Scout 13th December 1867. aged 76 "Andrew Taylor was married to five wives by whom he had thirty seven children, he twice married his deceased wife’s sister. He was married on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. A long time warden of this parish" .*

* For more on Andrew Taylor see our newsletters Nov. 2004, Jan & March 2005.

Peter LORD of Scout Bottom 12th July 1869. aged 81
"Late of the 60th Regiment. Wounded at the Battle of Waterloo".

Thomas CAMPBELL of Constable Lee 24th November 1869 .aged 48
"The widow of this man has been three times married, the first husband was found dead on Rochdale Moor. The second killed in Horncliffe Delf and the third killed by a lorry. In each case the body was interred under a coroner’s warrant".

John ASHWORTH of Hollin Bank 31st December 1870 aged 89
John ASHWORTH of Fern Hill Terrace 31st December 1879. aged 51
"Father and Son".

James DUCKWORTH of Cawl Terrace 27th April 1871.
aged 63 Lettice DUCKWORTH of Cawl Terrace 27th April 1871. aged 63
"Man and Wife"

William LAW of Siss Clough 25 May 1871.aged 91
"Brother of Richard Law aged 90 vide 2229 [number in the register] Husband of Alice Law 2221, with her son- in- law Henry Barnes, buried on the same day". Henry BARNES of Siss Clough 20th August 1870 aged 34 [2220] Alice LAW of Siss Clough 20th August 1870 aged 78 [2221]

Richard LAW of Haslingden Workhouse 29th August 1870. aged 90. [2229]

John KERSHAW of Newchurch 21st February 1879. aged 55

Edmund Ashworth, Newchurch 24th February 1879 aged 69

Harry Holt, Mill End 27th February 1879 aged 55

"John Kershaw was brother-in-law to Edmund Ashworth and Uncle to Harry Holt".

Henry INGHAM Bridleway Bottom, 4th March 1879. aged 69
Eliza INGHAM, Bridleway Bottom 4th March 1879. aged 49
"Husband and wife".

To be continued as space permits.