LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

Rossendale Branch Newsletter May 2011

Research and Advice Sessions:

at Haslingden Library every Monday 5.30 – 7.30 pm

and Rawtenstall Library every Tuesday 1.30 – 3.30 pm

You will find us upstairs at Haslingden or Rawtenstall on the appropriate days, as indicated above. We may be able to do simple look-ups for distant members. When contacting us with an enquiry, please include your membership number.

The LFHHS Resource Centre.

The Society’s Resource and Research Centre at 2 Straits, Oswaldtwistle, BB5 3LU is open every Thursday from 1.00pm – 5.00pm and the centre is now open on the 1st Saturday of each month 1.00pm

Coming Events

Collecting Local History Days

The Museum of Lancashire is hosting 13 "Collecting Local History Days" across the County. These events are open to everyone in Lancashire and offer the chance for people to directly contribute to the displays and stories in the Museum's new Lancashire People Gallery.

Who better to talk about 'Lancashire People' than real Lancastrians themselves?

Do you have an interesting object, photograph or story, about you, or one of your ancestors? Do you have any traditional recipes you would like to share? Objects and photographs don’t have to be old or valuable but they should be about you, your family and your life in Lancashire.

The Museum will photograph items brought along to the Collecting History Days and record your story. Please only bring objects that you would feel comfortable loaning to the museum. A member of the Museum staff will contact you at a later date to arrange the loan of your items if you are happy to do so.

These Collecting Local History Days are happening all over Lancashire during May and June commencing on 3rd May at the Lancashire Archives, Preston 3 – 7pm; and then at the following local libraries (unless otherwise stated);

7th May, Skelmersdale 11am – 3 pm;
11th May, Colne 3 – 7 pm;
17th May, Morecambe 3 -7 pm;
21st May, Chorley, 11am -3 pm;
4th June St. Anne’s 11am – 3pm*;
4th June, Haslingden 11am – 3pm;
11th June , Queen Street Mill, Textile Museum, Burnley 11am – 3 pm;
14th June, Garstang 3 – 7 pm; 18th June Lancaster, 11am – 3pm;
25th June, Clitheroe 11am – 3 pm.
* Event sponsored by the Friends of St. Anne’s Library.
For more information contact Kim Klug, Community Outreach Officer, telephone 01772 790832
or email kim.klug@lancashire.gov.uk

Saturday 15th May Royal British Legion 90th Anniversary Celebrations, at Astley Park Chorley, 10.30 – 4.30

The Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire will be attending as Patron. It is anticipated that there will be many stalls, including a Farmers’ Market. Activities will include music from The King’s Division Band. The Society will be represented. The LFHHS Chorley Research Centre will be open for military research only on that day.

All monies raised by this "Picnic in the Park" will go to the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. Admission is free

Saturday 21st May

2011 LFHHS One Day Conference and AGM

at St. Cuthbert’s Church Centre, Lytham Road, Preston, Lancashire PR2 3AR 9.45 – 5.00 pm

Three Good Speakers. & Buffet Lunch.

Full details and application form in your February "Lancashire" Journal.

Cost £12.40 for the Conference & Lunch; without lunch £6.50.

This is a chance to meet old friends, make new ones and put faces to names. There will be an opportunity to exchange information etc. Also a selection of books, CDs, and fiche which can be purchased or ordered.

Saturday 25th June

York Family History Fair The Knavesmire Exhibition Centre, The Racecourse, York 10.00am to 4.30pm Admission £4

The Society will once again be represented at this Fair. Anyone willing to help on our stalls should contact Stephen John Ward. Society Chairman, or you can make yourself known on the day.

Rossendale News Notes and Queries

Last month we had our AGM. The existing committee were re-elected and are as follows:

Chairman & Executive Rep. John Dalton
Secretary & Newsletter Editor Rita Hirst
Treasurer & Librarian Maureen Hodgkinson
Programme Organiser Leo Turner
Website Manager Wilfred Day
Library Researchers Veronica Slater & Rita Hirst
Minute Secretary Jean Harrison
Miscellaneous Michael Hiluta; Kathleen Ashburner
Publicity Mary Davison

Following our AGM we had a talk by Michael Hiluta about Rossendale’s links with Melbourne, Australia. To illustrate his talk he gave various examples from the obituaries of Rossendale men who had died in Australia. The most striking thing about these obituaries was the immense amount of information given in the local papers For example the Haslingden Observer 13th May 1950 gave an obituary for George Law of Haslingden who had emigrated to Melbourne 63 earlier! He was 91 years old. It also gave details of his brother James who had emigrated c1885 but had died in 1928. A third brother, John, was still living in Haslingden aged 78.

Report of the death of an American Citizen

Of course not all emigrants went to Australia, many more went to the United States. One of our members in California sent me a death certificate of one of her relatives who had come on a visit to Rossendale and died here within a few days.. The certificate was headed as above and related to Charles Joshua Taylor. Michael Hiluta found the following account of his death in the Rossendale Free Press. in July 1958:

American visitor died at station

An American paying a visit to his native Rossendale on Tuesday collapsed and died at Waterfoot railway station. He was 75 years old Mr. Joshua C. Taylor of Winter Park, Florida, and he was a native of Whitewell Bottom, who went to live in America as a child. He and his sister Mrs. Welsh were staying in Liverpool, having arrived in this country on Friday and Mr. Taylor had been to St. Nicholas' church, Newchurch where the Rector the Rev. F. W. Bennett had given him a copy of his baptismal certificate. He was on his way back when he collapsed in the station booking hall.  The cremation will be at Rochdale, the Rev. F. W. Bennett conducting the services and his ashes will be sent out to Florida. Funeral directors J. W. Churnside and Son Ltd.

A copy of the baptismal certificate from the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk website. reads:

Baptism: 12 Aug 1883 St Nicholas, Newchurch in Rossendale, Lancashire,
England Joshua Charles Taylor - Child of Charles George Taylor & Amy Born: 8 Feb 1883
Abode: Whitewell Bottom
Occupation: Colour Mixer
Baptised by: T P Moorhouse.

What a poignant story, a man returns to the place of his birth and dies within hours, with a copy of baptismal certificate in his pocket.

Nuttall Family of Lumb/Edgeside and Collinge Family of Stacksteads & Cowpe

by Derek Nuttall (9629)

Nearly fifty years ago I left Waterfoot to live in a small village a few miles south of Chester. Now, as I near my 80th birthday, I decided to join the Rossendale Branch of the LFHHS in order to do further work on a family tree, that I compiled in the 1950s, of the Nuttalls of Lumb/Edgeside and the Collinges of Stacksteads/Cowpe. Despite the lack of computers and the Web in those days, I managed to find details of over 200 ancestors. Much of this information came from aged relatives (many of whom had kept funeral cards, wedding certificates, or had family Bibles). Their memories in some cases stretched back to the mid 19th century.

On my father’s side – the Nuttalls – I got back to my 4xG grandfather, Richard, baptised in 1785. Tentatively, I have extended this back two more generations to a John Nuttall who married a Jane Robertshaw, of Tunstead, in 1739. My mother’s side – the Collinges – only took me back to c.1805, to my 2xG grandfather, Abraham Collinge, a bass singer in Cowpe Baptist Choir, who lived at Boorsgrave [sic] and was probably a member of the ‘Deighn Layrocks’. I still have his manuscript music book, which he bought in 1829 at a cost of 4s. 6d. from a stationer in Rochdale. This book is in a similar format to some which were (and I hope, still are) in Rossendale Museum.

If anyone has any further information relating to Abraham Collinge, I would be delighted to hear from them or, indeed, from anyone who has researched the Nuttalls or Collinges of Rossendale.

Email nuttall.r.d.n@btinternet.com