CHESHIRE ANCESTOR - The Family History Society of Cheshire

70 Pages·2012·0.92 MB·English

Cheshire
AnCestor
Registered Charity: 515168 Society website: www.fhsc.org.uk
Contents
Editorial 2 How to Find New Relatives and get
Chairman’s Jottings 3 Hooked on Genealogy in a Year 31
Mobberley Research Centre 5 Spotlight on Parish Chest
Membership Issues 10 Settlements and Removals 36
Family History Events 11 Stockport BMDs 38
Family History News 15 DNA and the Grandmother
Family History Website News 16 Conundrum 40
Books Worth Reading 19 Certificate Exchange 43
Letters to the Editor 22 Net That Serf (grey pages) 46
Help Wanted or Offered 25 Group Events and Activities 56
Aspects of a Registrar’s Professional New Members (green pages) 66
Life 27 Members’ Interests 71
Cover picture:
Over (Winsford), St. Chad. The church is late fifteenth century with a tower
added in the early sixteenth century. The chancel was lengthened in 1926.
There is a monument to Hugh Starkey who rebuilt the church in 1543.
Cheshire AnCestor is published in March, June, September and December (see last page). The
opinions expressed in this journal are those of individual authors and do not necessarily
represent the views of either the editor or the Society.
All advertisements are commercial and not indicative of any endorsement by the Society.
No part of this journal may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the
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as a result of any advertisement or notice published in this Journal.
Please send items for possible publication to the editor: by post or email.
All items should include name & membership number or postal address of submitter.
Our society was founded in 1969—
one of the first family history societies
Cheshire AnCestor 1 June 2012
Editorial
by Jean Laidlaw
First may I thank members who responded to my comments on the reliability
of online family trees. Some of these comments appear on the Letters page.
Please keep them coming.
I have made a few slight alterations in this issue including sections on family
history events, family history news and website news rather than combining
them in the notice board section. I hope it will be easier to follow.
As most of us will testify, we never ‘finish’ family history research. This is now
more true than ever as more and more records become available via the
internet. It is now possible to find information which previously might have
been inaccessible and illustrates that any clue about a person should be
followed up, however insignificant it might seem.
Some years ago when my father-in-law died, I was given some photographs
and a newspaper cutting containing an obituary of his great-uncle John Richard
OLIVER who died in Hartlepool in 1916. It mentioned that he was a Member
of "James Rewcastle Lodge" I.O.G.T (International Order of Good Templars - a
temperance society). I have been looking at the OLIVER family recently and
noticing this reference decided to search the internet to see if I could find more
information about this aspect of his life. What I found amazed me! His brother
Edward OLIVER, who was mentioned in the obituary as a fellow member of
the "James Rewcastle Lodge”, was recorded in a book entitled History of
Spennymoor by John Reavley published in 1935, which is available online. He
is described thus ‘He rose in the ranks of Good Templary and reached the
highestpossible post, that of Grand Chief Templar of England.’ I immediately
emailed the International Order of Good Templars and within a couple of days
I received a reply saying that he had served as Grand
Chief Templar from 1923-8 and before that as Grand
Secretary of the movement. My father-in-law, who was
fond of the odd tipple, had never mentioned this. His
great-uncle died when he was thirteen so perhaps he did
not know.
I think the moral of the tale is check all your
information for possible avenues to explore and keep
looking. Family history is never finished!
Cheshire AnCestor 2 June 2012
Chairman’s Jottings
by Alan Bennett
Dear All
In my last jottings I announced a competition that I set
after the death of my great-uncle at the age of 101. Since
then his baby sister has passed away leaving just one
brother still living at 99 not out.
I had a number of people who talked to me about their families but very few
actually emailed me with details. The winning entry, however, beat my
details by some distance. The winner has reported a family that had 13
children who had a combined age of 815 years. My 12 only reach 741 years.
The children of Daniel Massey & Mary Maurice (Morris)

Name Baptism Burial Age
Date Date

Joseph Massey 12 Jul 1759 26 Nov 1843 84
Elizabeth Massey 23 Aug 1761 21 Apr 1832 72
James Massey 22 Dec 1763 18 Oct 1848 84
Samuel Massey 11 May 1766 5 Mar 1840 74
Daniel Massey 16 Oct 1768 25 Jul 1855 87
Mary Massey 16 Mar 1771 1 Nov 1774 3
John Massey 6 Jul 1773 17 Dec 1848 75
Mary Massey 24 May 1776 10 Oct 1862 88
Jane Massey 24 May 1776 16 Jul 1851 77
Ann Massey 25 Oct 1778 25 Nov 1850 73
Richard Massey 24 Jun 1781 21 Feb 1782 0
William Massey 7 Dec 1783 29 Jan 1837 53
Richard Massey 25 Feb 1787 22 Apr 1832 45
815
As promised I have a prize for the winner. I have donated a copy of my
favourite genealogy software - The Master Genealogist. Congratulations to
Peter Lewis.
Cheshire AnCestor 3 June 2012
I would now like to express my sincere thanks to Heather Booth who has
now stood down as our committee member responsible for processing new
membership applications. She has done a fantastic job while I have been
involved with the committee. Thank you Heather. We have been very
fortunate to find a replacement in Sue McNulty. Good luck in your new role.
Finally, I am sorry to say that this will be my last Chairman’s Jottings. After
much soul-searching, I have decided to stand down as Chairman of the
society. Over the last year I have found that, for personal reasons, I have not
been able to give the role the time it deserves. I will continue to be the
webmaster and will therefore still play my part in the running of the society.
I will also continue to be one of the trustees for the Mobberley Research
Centre. I trust that a replacement Chairman will be found as soon as
possible.
I hope that I have played my part in the history of the society in that a new
website was created and the move of the research centre to Mobberley was
achieved. My sincere thanks go to all members of the committee, and to all our
members, who have supported me over the last few years.
Desperately seeking…
Honorary Secretary
We need a Secretary who will consider shadowing the present
secretary and take up office from the 2012 AGM.
Requirements are agenda and minute preparation and room
booking for four quarterly meetings a year, maintenance of a
committee list, an annual report, completion of the charity report
and occasional responses to emails. The tasks are not onerous.
Contact Lesley Smetham (see inside front cover of
Cheshire AnCestor) for further details.
Cheshire AnCestor 4 June 2012
Mobberley Research Centre
by Alan E Jones
The Research Centre at Mobberley was formally opened by the Mayor of
Cheshire East, Councillor Roger West, on Saturday 4th February. Despite a
sudden snowfall just prior to the opening, the event was well supported by
other local family and social history groups and by the Mobberley
community, including members of the Parish Council and the Mobberley
Village Society.
L to R: Cllr David Bailey, Parish Council Chairman; the Mayor; Lesley Smetham; Valerie
Hess, Cheshire Local History Association; Jonathan Pepler, County Archivist
Following the opening speech by the Mayor, a welcome speech was made by
the Chairman of Mobberley Parish Council, Councillor David Bailey. Jonathan
Pepler, Archivist at the County Record Office, then spoke about the long and
successful relationship between the County Record Office and the Family
History Society of Cheshire. Finally our chairman, Alan Bennett, thanked local
people for their welcome and also thanked the research centre
management committee and other volunteers who staff the centre for the
excellent work done in the relocation of the facilities to Mobberley.
Cheshire AnCestor 5 June 2012
The mayor with the Research Centre Management Committee. L to R: Lesley Smetham,
Joan Irving, Kay Brown, Maureen Kitson, Alan Jones
The Mayor enjoyed himself and was impressed by the research facilities.
Duty volunteers did a quick search and produced a basic ‘familytree’ for
the Mayor in just a few minutes.
The Mayor and Lesley Smetham chatting to Bryan Goodwin, one of our volunteers.
Cheshire AnCestor 6 June 2012
The Computer Room facilities attracted a lot of interest.
Many visitors were impressed with
our library collection. Some took the
opportunity to delve into books of
particular interest. Visitors having no
Cheshire ancestors were surprised to
find that we have resources for areas
outside Cheshire.
The facility for scanning book pages
on our dedicated scanner also
attracted attention.
Cheshire AnCestor 7 June 2012
In preparation for the opening
day display, an impressive
large-scale family tree was
printed at the Research Centre for
Mr Brian Caveney, a lifelong
resident of Mobberley, whose
ancestors owned the land on
which the Rajar was built. Mr
Caveney is a descendant of an
Irish family who were sub-tenant
farmers on a Crown Estate in
Ballykilcline. The family was
evicted, along with 73 other
sub-tenants, in 1847 for refusal to
pay rents. Under a state-aided
enforced emigration scheme they
were sent to America. Brian
Caveney’s great-grandfather,
Edward Caveney emigrated from
America to England around 1860.
The display included census
returns and other documents
relating to aspects of his family
history. The Caveney family tree being printed on the
plotter
So with the ‘Grand Opening behind us the five-day-a-week service to
members has resumed. By early April, 19 new members had joined the
Society at Mobberley. At the time of writing this report, an open day and an
open evening have been arranged for later in April. The purpose is to allow
local residents to see what use we are making of our part of their community
building and to show the facilities we can offer. Hopefully we will gain more
new members from these events.
In March, the Stockport and Congleton U3A Family History Groups visited us.
Northwich, Chester and Congleton FHSC Groups have visits booked for the
summer months.
Cheshire AnCestor 8 June 2012
Diary Dates
For up-to-date news and dates check the website:
www.fhsc.org.uk
15th Jul FINAL copy date for Cheshire AnCestor
29th Jul FHSC quarterly meeting, Anderton Memorial Hall, 2pm
13 Oct AGM and Open Day at Mobberley Research Centre
15th Oct FINAL copy date for Cheshire AnCestor
4th Nov FHSC quarterly meeting, Anderton Memorial Hall, 2pm
15th Jan 2013 FINAL copy date for Cheshire AnCestor
15th Apr 2013 FINAL copy date for Cheshire AnCestor
Those members who do not have access to the Internet should contact their
local group leader for up-to-date information about meetings, etc. Details for
all Group Leaders are inside the back cover.
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Cheshire AnCestor 9 June 2012
Membership Issues
WOW! WHAT A RESPONSE!!!
The number of members who responded to our Spring 2012 survey, included with the
March Cheshire AnCestor, was absolutely brilliant.
Thank You All!
Your FHSC management committee are only ever looking OUT, giving what WE
think you want. We desperately needed some good objective feedback and are sure
this will provide just that when all your responses are analysed.
For those of you who have not yet completed the survey, don’t worry, there
is still time ... your views count ... your ideas are important to us ...
SEND IT IN.
The Time To Renew Your Membershipof the FHSC is fast approaching, and I am
sure you all ‘can’t wait’to get your subscription for 2012/13 sent off to me!
Unfortunately, for one reason or another, the usual early reminder pages were not
included in the March Cheshire AnCestor so I felt a quick reminder here might
just do the trick.
Those of you who are setting up a NEW standing order instruction to your bank, in
order to be certain they get it in time, please send the completed form, DIRECTLY to
your bank and NOT to me. Forms will be found in the centre pages of the June
Cheshire AnCestorAnd don’t forget ... Alwaysinclude your membership
numberin the space provided.
Maurice Stokes
We are sad to report that the President of the North Cheshire Family
History Society Joan Bower died suddenly on Saturday 11th February aged
95. She was one of the first members of that society and right from the start
made it her business to enthuse everyone about family history. In October
1972 she became the committee officer with responsibility for
publicity. The first of many articles by Joan appeared in the December 1972
issue of the North Cheshire Family Historian. She was Chairman 1976-78
and again 1986-1990 and was group leader at Hazel Grove for many years.
David Gilligan (a longer tribute will appear in the next issue)
Cheshire AnCestor 10 June 2012