LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

Rossendale Branch Newsletter October 2013

LIBRARY DROP IN SESSIONS
Beginners Welcome. Haslingden Library every Monday 5.30 – 8.30 pm
Note: the doors to Haslingden Library close at 7.30 pm.

and at Rawtenstall Library every Tuesday 1.30 – 3.30 pm

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 1st Saturday of each month 1.00pm..

MANCHESTER CITY ARCHIVES

The Manchester City Library website at
 http://www.manchester.gov.uk/info/500138/central_library/5808/a_new_central_library/2 has details of the impending closure of the current access arrangements and the restricted access to limited resources until the new unit reopens next (2014) Spring. The Manchester Room at City Library, Elliot House and GMCRO in Ancoats both close on 15 September. From then on until Manchester Central Library re-opens in Spring 2014 there will be no access to their holdings.

New World War I website - Letters and Wills from the front
Digital images of the last letters from the Front and the last Wills of 230,000 soldiers who died in WW1 are now available at www.gov.uk/probate-search.

The site is free to search but the download data costs £6. Please note there are not documents for all soldiers who died.

Non Conformist Records www.ancestry.co.uk

This collection is mainly comprised of birth, marriage, and death registers from non-conformist congregations and churches in England and Wales that were turned over to the Registrar General following the Non-Parochial Register Act of 1840. It also includes non-parochial registers from the Church of England at St Petersburg, Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals, and registers from burial grounds and non-denominational cemeteries.

COMING EVENTS

Saturday 12th October 2013
The Irish One Day Conference
Oswaldtwistle Civic Centre 155 Union Road Oswaldtwistle BB5 3HZ 10am - 4pm. £15.00 with a Buffet Lunch or £10.00 for conference only without lunch.
There will be four talks which will include:
Workhouses in Ireland.
Irish history & sources for the family historian.
How to use the new familysearch website. Exploring Irish Ancestry using the Internet.
The fourth talk to be confirmed at a later date.
Check the journal and the website for details.
Bookings and payments need to be sent to :- Mrs Jennifer Benson 32 Slater Lane Leyland Lancs PR25 1TN.

17th October 2013 Heraldry Group Study Day

Hemsley Hall, The Crescent Salford 10.00am -4.00pm 16.50 including a buffet lunch. There are 4 talks- Different kinds of arms – My Art Work – Derbyshire Heraldry – The Heraldry of Science.
Please ask for a form or sent your fee together with your details to Derrick Walkden, 2 Butterlands, Preston, PR1 5TJ Tel. 01772 792224 email: derrickwalkden@btinternet.com

Rossendale News, Notes and Queries
September was a busy month for the Rossendale Branch. On the 4th September we visited Whitworth Heritage Museum. Where we were astonished by the amount of material available for anyone wishing to trace Whitworth Ancestors. Records ranging from rate books to the addresses of evacuees have been meticulously indexed. If you wish to see where your family lived they also have an extensive photographic collection. If you have Whitworth roots this is the place to go. For further details email: secretary@whitworthhistoricalsociety.org.uk

On the 14th of September we had a stall at King George's Hall, Blackburn where we were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the LFHHS. The following day our branch hosted the Society's annual dinner at Ash Day Lea, Rawtenstall. Both events took a lot of organising and a lot of input from branch members. Thankfully all turned out well in the end and we are hoping to put on our exhibition again in various venues throughout Rossendale.

CUT THE GRASS!

From Michael Hiluta an impassioned plea to Rossendale Borough Council, who are now instigating a policy of turning closed churchyards and cemeteries into wildlife preserves. MARY RAWSTRON Was my name, England my nation. Home was my dwelling place, And Heav'n my Salvation. Now I am dead and in my grave And all my bones are rotten. Look on this stone, you'll find my name When I am quite forgotten.

I am so pleased that Mary Rawstron was not cremated because as long as she has a gravestone here in St. James' churchyard Haslingden, she will never be forgotten. However I'm not able to show you this stone because the GRASS HAS NOT BEEN CUT.

You may care to believe that every picture tells a story, I can tell you every stone tells a story, for example Grave A301,
….Also of Margaret Ellen, Wife of Clement RIGG, of Welland Port, Canada and daughter of the above who died November 2nd 1893 aged 44 years”. I possess a copy of a letter (original in Canada) giving a moving account of the circumstances of her dying moments. However I am not able to show you the stone because the GRASS HAS NOT BEEN CUT.

You may be married or have a partner, but at the end of it all we are reminded that we have only been LENT Grave E55, ..Also Nancy, beloved wife of Lawrence HEAP, who died January 19th 1919. Dry your tears and weep no more, I am not dead but gone before. Do not repine but be content, I was not yours, I was but lent. However I am not able to show you this stone because the GRASS HAS NOT BEEN CUT

A couple of years ago we had a visitor from Box Hill Melbourne, Australia and I was able to find a marker stone belonging to his ancestor, how embarrassing will it be in future when I have to give the feeble excuse that, I can't find the stone because the GRASS HAS NOT BEEN CUT.

Recently I visited Whitworth Museum (highly recommended) and was much impressed. Later I discovered that 4 graves D233, D605, F268, H30 all have a Whitworth connection. Further more there is a list of worldwide connections to St. James' churchyard
e.g. Grave A32- Helibron, South Africa; D576- Alexandria Egypt; D585- Antwerp Belgium; D563- Bruthen, Victoria, Australia; G132- Meerut India; D576- Inglewood Park Cemetery California; H231 – Lonsdale, Rhode Island North America; A170- Nelson New Zealand.

I believe that St. James' graveyard is our English Heritage, an asset of which Haslingden should be proud.
There are thousands of people buried in St. James' who all thought they were SOMEBODY, like you and I, they once LIVED like you and I, and they then DIED but they have left a RECORD (monumental inscription) what record will you leave behind?

May I take this opportunity of asking PLEASE CUT THE GRASS only then will I be happy to give you a guided tour of the graveyard. Michael Hiluta (grave expert) email: m.hiluta@virginmedia.com

Information offered on the following:

James Worsley 1806-1869 married (2) Hannah Bamford nee Mellor in 1851; wid of William Dean 1803-1848 cotton manufacturer of Haslingden. (brother John Dean of Sykeside Mill 1808-1873). Son of James and (1 - Alice Clegg) also Sir Henry Wilson Worsley-Taylor 1848-1924 married Harriet Sayer Watkin 1850-1913 dau of Sir Edward William Watkin 'The Last Railway King' see Wikipedia. email: Reg Postlethaite rhpostlethwaite@yahoo.co.uk