From Bollington to Macclesfield in 25 years: a Cheshire journey in family history

Very many moons ago I knew I had to get to Bollington. But which one? I decided it was the one just outside Macclesfield, a settlement of cotton spinners and weavers.

Back in 1992, I must have written to my great aunt (born 1903), and her (subsequent) executor sent me a handwritten transcription of a Will, still in the family, dated at the testator's death bed, December 1856.

This Will of my 4x great-grandfather never made it to probate (oopsy!) but informed me that my distant aunt Esther Carline (b 1816) had recently died at nearly 40, leaving a family. From the wording it looked like she had married James Fox.

Still a school kid I hot-footed it down to the reference library in town and located the Derbyshire microfiche. <pre internet><pre internet> There was the marriage of Esther and James, 1839 at Matlock parish church. And baptismal records for nine children, ceasing at her death.

Next, still without leaving town, I combed the probate registry for the Foxes. I could not find James but surprisingly I did find Esther:

I'm not sure how long this all took, but within six months of receiving that letter from my great aunt, I'd tracked my new aunt Esther to Bollington, Cheshire.

Well actually I hadn't as she'd died back in Matlock, but it looked like her husband had left town, presumably with the nine kids in tow, to begin a new life among the cotton mills of Cheshire.

That's it! Nothing more to know. Until eventually eventually, probably late 1995, I get to visit the Census Rooms in the basement of the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane, London.

{{{ time has passed, tick tock }}}

Finding the Fox family in the 1861 census of Bollington, near Macclesfield, was a big moment. There were NO surname indexes. I did have information from a researcher, Joan Measham, in Matlock, that the Fox family had definitely left by 1861. (Derbyshire had an excellent census surname index.)

The resulting census entry had me completely confused. James Fox was shown as married (to wife Mary), and among their nine children were names I'd hoped to see, others I'd never heard of and more that were missing.

My first census entry and it was a blended family! I didn't know what all to make of it.

~~~~

In the words of Dr Dre, that was 95. It's now 2021 and I'm back in Cheshire again, not in pretty (stunning!) Bollington, but finally doing battle with Macclesfield itself. Who will win, me or it.

In the 1980s I recall a tv show Beat the Teacher hosted by Bruno Brookes, in which pupil "Jonathan from Macclesfield" wiped out his competition, without mercy.

I recalled that cousin Sandra in Macclesfield, Esther's descendant (duly sleuthed) had been beyond wonderful in resolving the second-most complex of Esther's clan.

But this paled into the background now as I was up against....

Joe Turnock.

Joe Turnock was a rogue. A charmer, a ladies' man, no stranger to ducking, diving, wheeling, although not dealing. And my 3x great-grandfather.

After siring my forebear out of wedlock (thank you DNA), a spell in clink and then widowhood, he had chosen Macclesfield on which to inflict his next promise. Vows of marriage were exchanged there with hard-working widow Ellen, Mrs Stafford.

He would absolutely have recognised the surname, as it was Stafford Gaol that had control of his liberty just five years prior.

He's at home in Macclesfield in 1861 in a textbook nuclear family and then pouff! no further trace. I did spot the signs that Ellen his wife was doing just fine, however.

Did Joe die in 1862 as many artless family trees suggest. Of course not. Did he have more children around the countryside: undoubtedly.

But this week from Cheshire itself came part of the answer. "Ellen kicked him out!" Macclesfield, quite literally, said "no". Thanks to Ellen's descendant (duly sleuthed) for this nugget.

I certainly didn't think that I'd be back in this area, genealogically, and now that Joe Turnock has departed stage left, we can return our thoughts to the nine children of Esther Fox (affectionately remembered) who assuaged or augmented the grief at the loss of their mother by swallowing sobs over the relentless noise of the cotton mill machinery in the charming and peaceful town of Bollington, near Macclesfield, 1861.

(not Bollington near Chester!)

DNA: 1845 surprise. Found: one lion

I just got notification that Elizabeth O'Neal's April blog party is on DNA and Genetic Genealogy. Today is the last day of April, so I'm getting my skates on, and serving up an appetiser for the party.

Here we go:
My family tree hasn't changed that much in recent years, but in February it put in a polite but firm request to change permanently and irrevocably.

The big old "gap" in the family tree where Unknown Male had a child with my Millicent Bagshaw, in 1845, just got answered.

I was working through my clusters from Ancestry DNA, and as you know, finding groups of people who didn't fit anywhere, but who did belong *somewhere*, together.

It feels like I'm in the movie Madagascar, with me trying to find the Lion at the centre of a party. At the moment I'm just seeing and hearing a group of chipmunks boogying on the outside. They only match 20 centimorgans (cM).

We're not getting any closer to the Lion. Ok, so these folks were kind enough to do the DNA test and might not like the "chipmunk" analogy. They had pretty basic family trees and one guy had no tree at all. But his name was "Len Millwood" and that name, Millwood, appeared in the tree of the other person in his cluster.

Up the Millwood tree we go, then we find dozens of shared Hammersley connections, descending from Ellen Turnock (1798) who married Mr Hammersley. Not all belong to the same cluster and very few have online trees. In one case "Ralph J Lorenz" (living in USA), I muscle up and examine every single gentleman of this name before landing on one from Staten Island. Bingo his grandfather's marriage record mentions the name Hammersley.

I discover the Turnocks are the epi-centre of the clusters but all these dozens of 20cM matches ain't helping me determine which one is Unknown Male. Many of them don't feature in clusters being right in Ancestry's cM cut-off.

Turns out, it was Joseph Turnock (b. c. 1823), sometime stonemason, maybe thief, and most definitely a labourer. Twice married: then disappears. He's our Unknown Male. The Lion at the centre of the party.

We suspect the deed was done in the street market in Buxton, Derbyshire, April 1845 about 15 miles equidistant from both parties.

Joseph's ancestry hails from north Staffordshire, England, around the Moorlands, which has been great to evoke. I'm even hopeful we can make an educated conjecture on an another illegitimacy three generations prior: the Unknown Male responsible for Miss Innocent Goostrey (1754), Leek.

Once again I'm very grateful for all those (new) cousins who took the Ancestry DNA test, were sporting enough to engage with me, and who Absolutely bear no resemblance to any of these characters in the major blockbuster cited above.

Midlands ancestry and GEDmatch (UK)

I've been trying to make sense of SNPs and centiMorgans, segments, chromosomes and phasing. Reading about eastern Polynesian endogamy has been helpful with some real life examples of how genetic material may be inherited.

What Are The Odds from DNApainter is proving fairly straightforward, though is limited (it says) when each result shares an average of <40cM with the tester: 90cM is better. And I'm not sure what its views are on endogamy, complex relationships within the extended family, or generally "sticky" DNA (without there necessarily being endogamy).

I've tested with Ancestry DNA, which has been highly informative, reassuring and maddenly suggestive. I'm in the process of exploring the benefits of uploading this data to other sites, this month it's GEDmatch.

Yesterday I focused on a family group in Leeds. Ancestry very helpfully confirmed that our shared origins were in the Midlands (which I interpret as Staffordshire and the conurbation where Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire all met). I say confirmed, as I'd already guessed this from the useful data at GEDmatch.

I'd have been unwise to look at this match, despite the "Midlands" tag, without knowing two things, that Peter (from Leeds) matched Mrs C (from Liverpool), that as well as matching each other they matched us. And secondly, and most critically, that all three parties actually share some precise segment of the same chromosome.

For both of these requirements, I needed GEDmatch. In fact it was at that site where the shared segment in question, and its three holders, was identified. The amounts shared are small (and so not resulting in a cluster of matches at Ancestry). It is nonetheless a cluster though, one that could easily have been missed.

I'm glad I persevered. Mrs C had popped up in another triangulation exercise on the site a week prior, so I'd already done the digging and knew her connection to us. We both descended from Jonathan Gee (origin: Hyde, Cheshire) and Sarah Brasier (origin: Kinver and Enville, Staffordshire).

GEDmatch's new triangulation, therefore, hinted quite strongly that the Leeds family also descended from this couple, or from one or more of their parents/grandparents. Further back seemed unlikely as we'd be talking ninth cousins, which, with very little endogamy present, seems unlikely for matches of 11cM plus.

The Leeds family's tree was largely spoken for and not looking very Midlands. The Yorkshire part did not fit with a gradual drift up from our Chesterfield branch. I couldn't see any geographical overlaps over the period in question.

I was intrigued by the final grandparent: Mr Davies from Wales. Closer inspection of the excellent tree showed that this chap's birth record was very much missing in action. But his Dad, of the same name, was a Wire-Drawer.

My antennae says Midlands, for that occupation. Exactly what we need. I'm still short of biographical detail, but going back through his tree, I saw some names I recognised. This wire-drawer was from Kinver, and descends from the only surviving brother of Sarah Brasier (born 1751).

You can bet I'm keen to establish full biographical detail on this branch, as it strongly appears we can paint in those 11 or so centiMorgans as being from Kinver.

I have more reading to do. More records to find. But all this is just a warm-up flex and stretch before I take on Ireland. Am I ready? After 11 May maybe, as our local café's famous Irish breakfast will be back on the cards.

Thanks GEDmatch, by the way. I'm genuinely tickled to have 7x great-uncle waiting in the wings to be a bona fide relative, particularly one right at the heart of the Industrial Revolution in the Midlands (for better or for worse).

Where did you go, baby Evans?

This wee laddy was born on 8 September, 1851, in central Merthyr Tydfil. His father was a pattern maker in the ironworks. I was really very lucky to find this certificate. My thanks to the staff at the Register Office for locating it.

 When he was three months old he and his family unit all took to sea from Liverpool to New Orleans. Quite a route. They were Mormons: the first in the family to go out to the New World.

Although... his mother's sister's husband's father was there - Mr Giles died in December 1851 at Council Bluffs on the banks of the River Missouri, on his way West, to Utah, at least 80% of the way there, but still 900+ miles to go.

Why did the Evans family go, given the risks - of starvation, drowning, hypothermia, infectious diseases, violent incidents, death in childbirth? Well they wanted a better life, in their version of the promised land. And they did not know that Mr Giles had died. Folks back home did not learn this for a year!

The good news is the Evans family started early. With Spring just beginning as they arrived in New Orleans there was a good chance they would make it upriver to Council Bluffs by June and the long walk to the Salt Lake valley in handcarts would be, should be, concluded before the onset of Autumn, and the chance of blizzards. One blizzard could wipe out a small party.

The problem is.... Well the problem is, the Evans family didn't make it to Utah. Something happened on the way.

Saints by Sea: the Kennebec passengers

Saints by Sea: what happened next to the Kennebec passengers

A voyage on a steamboat, the Saluda in 1852 going up-river

Aftermath: telling the steamboat story. What I cannot find are precise references to Native Americans in the area, nor of diseases such as cholera and yellow fever attacking folk. I cannot trace the parents making it to Salt Lake City. It is possible that William Evans, now just six months old and likely weaned, when the steamboat exploded, might have been adopted in Missouri, Iowa or just possibly by Native Americans....

How did we find the babyfather of my forebear (born 1846)?

Just how did we do that?

Recently, after centuries of silence, we heard from beyond the grave, from the bio-father of my Grandma's grandma, Ellen Bagshaw (1846-1901). Ellen has been dead a long time and was a tough cookie. There was some kind of encounter nine months prior to her birth, most likely off the market place in a town like Buxton in early Spring after a cold winter. The protagonists were foolish, fecklish and delirious youth of 23 and 20, intent on embarking on a bit of comfort in the sun, which the sands of time would forget. Something from a Hardy novel. Ellen herself was the antitheses of these qualities and devoted serious time to ensure her own family's future. We had never considered her biological father to be a real breathing person, but he was.

So, here is the news:

My DNA matches screamed Staffordshire, but I didn't have any Staffs ancestry? Piecing together trees of varied 20cM matches led me through new surnames to the Turnock family of Leek and thus an unknown burglar 3xgreat-grandfather (had fling in 1845- Derbyshire).

Let me say, there was no papertrail at all. This 'father' just vanished on arrival. DNA did resolve this, but I definitely could not have predicted this would happen, in advance. So, just how did we do that?

The wind was just 'in the right direction', and a number of factors lined up in making this possible. I am listing them here, and may revise this over time*, and after reflection:

1. We would have a surname of the babyfather that is very rare: there are 36 times as many "Mortons" around than these Turnocks, for example.
2. The quality of parish register and census data for the area where this group lived, North Staffordshire and southern Cheshire, was excellent, which combined with a rare surname made family tree reconstruction easy. 
3. We had chosen to test on Ancestry which has a very large database of testers and a very user-friendly interface. I also had a current Ancestry subscription which would help when it came to looking at the trees of matched people.
   
4. I knew the rest of the family tree very well, so as researcher I could eliminate lines that had nothing to do with it, and could also identify an 'alien' group of distant cousins as worthy of exploration.
   
5. I had no other known ancestry in Staffordshire: that would have muddied the waters considerably.
   
6. Ancestry was adamant that we had ancestry in the Potteries, Staffordshire. This meant that I had to take the information seriously. (I had been seeing Staffordshire-based people appear as matches for months and had ignored them.)
   
7. Close relatives of the 'babyfather' (his siblings) had 'umpteen' descendants; and unbeknownst to me, a large number of them had tested (at least 40 I'm thinking) of whom a high percentage shared portions of DNA with us (20 people and rising).
8. My relatives unwittingly 'favoured' this ancestor rather than other ancestors of the same generation - one does not inherit equal amounts of DNA from grandparents, still less from those in previous generations. (Reference to 'sticky' DNA removed.)
   
9. A member of an earlier generation had tested - and this increased the number and quality of matches by an order of magnitude. Without this, I may not have established a connection and the last point would not apply.
   
10. DNA matches themselves were largely co-operative and moderately chatty, enabling a few wrinkles to be smoothed or removed in the family tree.
11. I also had three days spare and some experience of this work already, which meant clues were not overlooked but rather exploited, pet theories were ruthlessly demolished and had trained myself to keep going even when there was no obvious path to success.
12. I had some experience of tracing families which meant those folks with blank trees, limited trees or wrong information could still be identified as part of the family. This was necessary as only 4 of our matches had the name Turnock in the tree.
    
13. I had access to a clustering tool which 'flagged up' groups of living cousins that were connected to each other by DNA. In fact, slowly working through this tool's output had me pause (for several weeks) as the 'flagged' group could no longer be ignored.
    
14. I was familiar with the concept of 'shared matches' with a reasonable grasp of probability, kinship terminology, genetic inheritance, the 'ThruLines' software.
15. And finally, a lone descendant of the 'babyfather' by a subsequent documented marriage was linked by papertrail to him, and had a demonstrably greater portion of shared DNA with us than anyone else from the line, meaning I could attribute parenthood to this gentleman rather than to any of his brothers/nephews.

*Light edit 2022.

Hillbilly Elegy

Having just read Hillbilly Elegy, by J. D. Vance, I was heartened to see that my Middletown, Ohio, cousin, Lily was connected through the arteries to the same people, Vance writes on. Lily’s daughter married a man from Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky where ‘a women ain’t fully dressed without her gun’. I’m proud of that connection. Times ahead would prove tough and forty years down the track they had one heck of a fight on their hands to keep the family together. Lily sent my great-grandparents in Wales blankets during the War. They were good people.

The Charwoman at the Poorhouse

Jenny Jory was born 1789 the 'baseborn' child of Jane Jory (then 25). I had thought that Jane was my forebear, but it turns out mine is two years younger and from Truro, 5 miles away.

The problem seems to have been the London Road just a ten minute walk away. All her children were born out of wedlock, and it seems by different fathers.

1. James 1808 (dies age 11)
   
2. Lissey Brown Jory 1813, father John Brown, farmer, Ninnis
   
3. Mary Perry Jory 1816, father George Perry, farm labourer, Bodmyn Prison (dies age 33)
   
4. James 1819, father Richard Lanyon, farmer Lamsear (dies age 26)
   
5. Simon 1825, father William Bartis, labourer of uncertain location (dies age 15)
   
6. John 1828, father John Cock, farm labourer, Churchtown in the parish

In most of these Jenny is described as charwoman, Butts Poorhouse or charwoman of Killivose

John Brown is worse as two months later his other illegitimate is born of Elizabeth Roberts, another charwoman in the parish (at Downs Tenement), who has illegitimate twins by him three years later (1816) by which time he is in 'Bodmyn Prison'. Elizabeth too has other illegitimate children (also with several children are two other charwomen, Honor Keast and Ann Batten).

The parish does a good job of naming the fathers. John Jory the youngest child becomes a farm servant and moves away.

Jane dies age 80 at Mile Stone House (or Hendra) in the parish, 1870. She lived for the last years with her son John who was a lead miner.

Four Gone: A Disappearing Act

I have several people on the family tree for whom there exists just a birth or baptismal record, and nothing else. Yet the most puzzling disappearants, are a group of four. Outside of wartime, you don't expect to lose sight of a whole group: there ought to be a trace somewhere. The cast of four are:

1) Edward Pascoe, who signed his name Pasco. Occupation unknown, son of a butcher. Age unknown. All that is known is he married Mary in 1839 at Golant St Sampsons Church.

2) Mary Pascoe, born Mary Hitchens in 1806 at Gwennap. She had first been married to William Hawkings who was a blacksmith and later a schoolmaster, living in the parish of Tywardreath. I can at least divine that he had an accident, occasioning the change of occupation and likely leading to his premature death. Two friends, perhaps, assist the widow claiming his funds.

Now for the final pair of our party, Edward's two stepdaughters by Mary's first marriage:

3) Elizabeth Hawkings, baptised 1831 at Tywardreath.

4) Ann Hawkings, baptised 1833 at Tywardreath.

The next event we have is the marriage in 1839 and there is no sighting in Cornwall for them in census of 1841. Vanished!

Where could they have gone?

The story is intrigued by the Will of Mary's sister, Ann Hendra (nee Hitchens), dated 1877, some years later. She singles out her two nieces that had the name 'Ann' including Ann Hawkings. Baptised as Ann Hendra Hawkings, she is listed in the Will as Ann H_______ Hocking. Now I have no way of knowing if this is a true transcription, which I'm reading on the 'enrolled copy'. I suspect it isn't as the testator should have known the Ann H_______, as it was her own name! This casts doubt on the 'Hocking' too. Had Ann married, or is this a misreading of Hawkings? The aunt doesn't bother putting the married name of the other niece (Sarah Ann Verran) suggesting she might either not know or care about such details. One of Mary's sisters is named, despite being in Australia (this fact of course not being provided) suggesting that Mary was likely dead prior to 1877.

I have combed records. I have eliminated "Ann Hendra Uren" in Michigan. I have consulted obvious indexes. I looked in Avoca (where two Hawkings relatives lived), the Clare Valley (ditto the Verrans) and Whitby Ontario (ditto more Hawkings relatives). (I may have missed a shipping record). These folks are eluding me.

I glanced through 200 baptisms and 250+ marriages to home in on "John Pascoe the butcher", father of Edward, but he is not becoming apparent.

I wonder a bit about South America. If that was their destination, it will be a hard ride through the records to find them.

I hope to consult the Estate Duty returns for the aunt's estate: massive volumes inaccessible at the National Archives.

It would certainly be a feather in my cap to locate these folks: but it will be a waiting game thanks to this Disappearing Act.