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Beginners => Family History Beginners Board => Topic started by: joelhall on Friday 06 March 09 02:19 GMT (UK)

Title: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: joelhall on Friday 06 March 09 02:19 GMT (UK)
hello everyone,

ive been trying to get a family tree/family history done for a while now.  i have some limited information at the moment, and a huge number of photographs from my grandmother, who i need to put names and stories to.  my grandmother went into hospital last week with an infection, and told me e would go through them and name people and shed tell me all she knew...

tragically, after three days in hospital, she died this sunday gone, which has been a tremendous blow to me. its also made me more determined than ever to get the history done, if just to honour her memory.

as she was a few weeks short of her 95th birthday, understandably she was the last of her generation in the family it seems, and all of the knowledge and memories are sadly gone with her.

to cut a long story short, and avoid a eulogy, ill tell you how things stand (who knows, perhaps there could be relations here or someone who knows the family)...

our surname is hall.  my grandmothers (paternal) maiden name was stringer,and she was born in anfield, though im told her parents were name stringer and battye, and came from holmfirth, near huddersfield.  she was winifred maude stringer, her brothers were sydney and norman. her fathers name was william stringer.  as ive lost my notes for some time, i forget her mothers name, though the surname was battye, and her sister, clara amelia, left to marry a man named dilworth, from saskachewan, canada.  the dilworths now live in medicine hat there i believe, though welost contact last year after my grandmothers cousin, leonard dilworth, died.

on the hall side, i also dont have any notes to hand (am frantic to find them though), so this is all off the top of my head.  my grandfather was thomas laurence hall, his father peter hall, his brother stanley- also one or two sisters,i think peggy being one.   the rest escapes me sadly as its been rather an emotional time.  ill repost tomorrow after i speak to me dad.

i have plenty of photographs, going back 6 generations to the birkets and chadwicks (entered the family maternally of course), a scrap book filled with info, albeit not in any particular order, some death/internment cards from the 1800s, and some misplaced notes (as well as remembered info, though due to the recent passing of my grandma its hard to think of much right now.  im sure much more will surface over the next few weeks too.

im here to ask for:

practical advice as to how to best begin.

see if anyone here could possibly be connected to my family in anyway.  i believe the name battye is common to holmfirth.

if so please contact me (i know its a long shot, but worth trying).  ive not found any published family history so far, but am still searching this avenue.

ill post more information soon if it is requested.

thanks for your time

joel hall
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Rosedale on Friday 06 March 09 02:33 GMT (UK)
Hi Joel,
Sorry about your grandmother.

For anybody else thinking of helping I just gathered some dates for the people you mentioned:

Winifred M Stringer born Qtr June 1914 in W.Derby district
and Norman S Stringer born Qtr March 1919 W.Derby district
Their parents being William Stringer and Alice M Battye who married Dec Qtr 1912 in Huddersfield district.

Are you looking for more information along those lines inc. censuses etc (it sounds like you have a lot already), or looking for other relations - or both of course :D? I'm sure there's published info online with surnames such as this it shouldn't be too hard to find.

If not done so already I recommend Genes if you're looking for other people possibly related with information and Ancestry too - I believe they run quite a few trials at the moment which could be of some help - however people here are always happy to help on searches, it's really a great place.

Are you still in the Anfield area? If you ever need lookups specifically in Liverpool I'm always happy to (try) and help - not far from the Records Office here.

Best of luck searching,
Lisa.
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Spidermonkey on Friday 06 March 09 09:21 GMT (UK)
Hi Joel,

Just wanted to say sorry about your grandmother.

As Lisa said, if you need any help searching, then there will be plenty of people willing to help.

Welcome to Rootschat,

Spidermonkey

Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: joelhall on Friday 06 March 09 12:20 GMT (UK)
already so helpful thanks :) thats right her mother was alice.  where exactly was this information? i do have a lot more, and some fascinating anecdotes, but like i said my minds all over the place at the moment :(.

i really am looking for both, first of all id like as much information as possible on the family back to william stringer and alice battyes parents, as this far i already have the most amount of info to hand, and for peter hall and his wifes parents.

unfortunately my father was an only child, so only his cousins and so forth live in where they all eventually settled - wallasey, (we live in bucks).  if you could dig some things up id be forever in your debt, so please feel free to contact me if you could help :).

alot of the family seem to pop up all over the place too, so ive not had much luck on censuses.  ive looked through the 1871 census online, but i doubt im looking in the right places, as i couldnt return many results which looked right for thomas hall, though i had to pay to see the details, which i cannot do right now, though i will soon if i need to.   for instance i have the following death cards (ill write them out here as our scanner is broken right now):

in affectionate rememberence of

thomas hall,

formally of widnes,

who died at hereford, july 6th,

in the 78th year of his age,

and was this day interred at farnworth church.

widnes, july 9th 1874

the second with it:

in affectionate rememberence of

anne,

the beloved wife of thomas hall,

who died on tuesday, june 17, 1879,

aged 44 years,

and was interred at st. marys churchyard, birkenhead,

onfriday, june 20, 1879

thy will be done

this is an example of some of the information i have on hand, and for now is as far back asid like to go to start.  as you can see, thomas was from cheshire, died in hereford,then was buried in lancashire (if my geography serves me right).

spidermonkey, thank you for your kind words and welcome :)

one last note as you mentioned 'ancestry', i left a post last night on the following thread looking for battyes from holmfirth:

http://boards.ancestry.myfamily.com/surnames.battye/16/mb.ashx

so this looks promising :)

joel
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Annie65115 on Friday 06 March 09 12:53 GMT (UK)
Hello,

I'll echo the welcome from others, and commiserations about your gran too.

It sounds as though you already have a lot of info that will help you enormously in your searches!

According to freeBMD there were 2 Alice Maud Battyes born in the Huddersflied district in the relevant time scale - 1879 and 1883. The 1891 census shows them both living in Holmfirth with their respective families, although the dates are birth are less exact - given as "around" 1880 and 1881.

Do you know of FreeBMD?  www.freebmd.co.uk    -- it can be very helpful. edit - got that wrong! use the link in the next post down!

Do you have access to any sites where you can search censuses?

Do you have any idea of Alice's parent's name? or of any siblings? I'm sure someone will post the details of those 1891 censuses if either seems likely.

If you have no idea which was your Alice's family, your best bet might be to order her marraige certificate which you can do through the GRO site, using the reference details for the marraige that you'll find on the BMD site. The marraige certificate will give you Alice's father's name and you can go from there.

Of course I understand that you feel that this has really given you a push to get your research going but you might want to have a bit of a breather and let emotions settle a bit before getting too bogged down in looking at all the censuses etc.

Good luck! You'll get lots of help here!
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Rosedale on Friday 06 March 09 12:56 GMT (UK)
I got the information from www.freebmd.org.uk - it's good for the bare bones of information and provides district, location, quarter and year so that it's easier to quote when buying the certificates from the GRO which can cost I think about £10 without that information (£7 with the info). I use it for pretty much everything.

Other good sources are if you type in any county name youre looking for and 'bmd' afterwards such as "lancashire bmd" - they're all free to use.

Currently without Ancestry right this minute, but I'll be home later and if somebody hasn't had a look by then I'll have a nosey on the census for you.

Send me a message if you'd like any records of baptisms, marriages and burials for Liverpool (That's all the local records office holds). Need around about date and area - and name of course, and I can probably work it out from there  ;D I'm actually on my way in the next hour but I go often.

Lisa

Edit: Just repeating what Anne said, she beat me to it  ;D ;D
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Annie65115 on Friday 06 March 09 13:07 GMT (UK)
Except, Rosedale, that you put the web address for freeBMD correctly instead of my mangled attempt!  :-[
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Woody32 on Friday 06 March 09 14:55 GMT (UK)
Hi,

this is from the 1901 Census..do any of the names fit in? all born Hinchcliffe Mill
Joe Battye 42 
Mary Ann Battye 40 
William W Battye 19 
Alice M Battye 18   
Albert A Battye 16 
Clara A Battye 14   
Florence E Battye 11 
Edith A Battye 8 

There are more Battye's just below on the same page.

Same Family 1891

Joe Battye 32 
Mary Ann Battye 30 
William W Battye 9 
Alice M Battye 8  
Albert A Battye 7 
Clara A Battye 4   
Florence E Battye 1 
Sarah E Battye 7/12  (maybe died Jun qtr 1891)
 
 
Possible Marriage of Joe Battye

Sept Qtr 1881 Huddersfield  9a 329   
Battye  Joe     
BEARDSELL  Mary Ann     
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Annie65115 on Friday 06 March 09 15:01 GMT (UK)
But neither of the 1891 Holmfirth Alice Battyes is from this family (one set of parents is Enoch and Hannah, the other is George and Martha).

Without knowing more about Alice, I think we're just stabbing in the dark and could come up with several "possibles" which might only serve to confuse until more info is available.
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Woody32 on Friday 06 March 09 15:24 GMT (UK)
Passenger List.. this is just one of a few trips back that Clara A Dilworth made.

Name: Mrs Clara A Dilworth Spring Leigh Holmfirth
Birth Date: abt 1887  
Age: 47 
Port of Departure: Montreal, Quebec, Canada 
Arrival Date: 12 Jul 1934
Port of Arrival: Liverpool, England 
Ports of Voyage: Montreal, Quebec and Glasgow 
Ship Name: Montclare 

Birth date fits the 1901 Census (above).
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Annie65115 on Friday 06 March 09 18:56 GMT (UK)
so the likeliest birth for Alice, if that is indeed her, would be Huddersfield q1 1883 9a 278
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: joelhall on Friday 06 March 09 21:37 GMT (UK)
youre all spot on :)  alice battye was born on 12th of february 1883 to joe and mary ann battye (nee beardsell), william stringer on the 10th of january 1889.  he died the day before her 75th birthday in wallasey of carcinoma of the stomach.  the battye family mentioned is the correct one.  sarah did indeed die in childhood, and the clara amelia dilworth is the correct one.

there is something which came as a huge shock around an hour ago.

i was looking through some of my grandmas items with my dad, to see if anything needs attending to.  i found yet more photos, including a lovely colourised one of their wedding day (which im going to frame for my dad :)).  there was also a tin including, amongst other things:

william stringer and alice battye's birth death and marriage certificates.

their parents death certificates.

theirs and their parents wills.

on my grandads side, there are similar documents too :) as well as several letters and other personal documents.

there was a strange 19th century photo of a rather extended family, though noone i recognise, i believe one of her parents was one of the children in them.

not only that, but my grandma had a surprise for me... 

ive spoken to her for years about a family tree.  i loved hearing it from her (even approaching 95 she was neither senile nor had dementia, etc. so her clarity and memory of it was still clear.  sadly her death was due to a mis-diagnosed infection.  i should point out this was not negligence, as i study medicine myself so am aware of how difficult this particular diagnosis was. sorry - just my little disclaimer there ;)).

as i was saying, i loved hearing it from her, and the stories made me feel i knew the people.  there was a few photocopied sheets in the tin, of my grandfathers side, done as a rough family tree.  ive seen this before and she gave my dad and i copies a few years ago.

what i found next i can only call a very pleasant surprise.

it was a notebook, and it contains nothing less than...

six generations of the family tree! :) 

over the years shed been doing it for us and left it behind (probably cos she knew i loved her stories instead and to give me the challenge hehe :)). there are eve copies from the parish records in huddersfield.

once ive gone through it i shall of course share what i know with you all.  id still like to thank you all for all the work youve put into helping me.  its very much appreciated :)

and of course i have to thank my grandma, whos habit of doing everything thoroughly, and her love of family has been of tremendous help :)

youve all been excellent help.

thank you all and i look forward to seeing you more on the boards :)

joel hall.
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: joelhall on Saturday 07 March 09 21:41 GMT (UK)
ive called a number regarding the st marys churchyard.  after viewing the following http://stmarysbirkenhead.blogspot.com/ i couldnt find the two hall graves mentioned at the top which are still remaining, searching for my great-great-great-grandmother anne, whos deatils on her death notice i posted above.

as it turns out during the 60s, the church yard was dug up and many of the bodies exhumed and re-interred at lanican cemetary.  although this link states that there are two graves with the name hall present, it does not provide any details in the following transcriptions beneath of either of these graves.

as for my grandmas side, ive looked for holmbridge chapel, which is now homes and for sale, and assume by the photos that my grandparents were most likely married in st davids church in holmbridge, although she always told me it was the chapel, which would be quite sad it this has now gone.

tomorrow if possible, or monday i intend to also ring st lukes church in farnworth to discover if my great-great-great-grandfathers grave is still there (assuming it is the correct church, though ive good reason to believe this is the case), and hopefully i should have some copies of the parish records before long :)

if theres any hope someone local could give me in this search (as im a long way from merseyside and cheshire and unable to travel at any rate) then i would be extremely grateful and would try to compensate you as best i could.

ive also got the number for the huddersfield /7 district family history society, so will be contacting them in the very near future.

there are a few more things in the tin which give good clues as to burial places and where records could be found so i will be checking these over the next week too.

ill be sure to keep you all posted as more information becomes available.

joel :)
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: Spidermonkey on Sunday 08 March 09 14:37 GMT (UK)
Hi Joel,

What a lovely legacy for your grandmother to leave you.  Keep us updated with the results of your investigations!
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: janan on Sunday 08 March 09 14:53 GMT (UK)
Hi Joel

Sorry to hear about your grandma's death but wow what any amazing collection of things she has left you. So much to treasure and add to.

For local help with the graves I suggest you post a specific request on the Cheshire board

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/board,6.0.html

Good luck with your research

Jan ;)
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: EDawn1999 on Thursday 25 April 13 02:05 BST (UK)
hello, my great grandpa was Leonard Dilworth of Medicine Hat and it seems we are both searching for family history. Maybe you can help?
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: joelhall on Monday 12 May 25 23:03 BST (UK)
Quote from: EDawn1999 on Thursday 25 April 13 02:05 BST (UK)
hello, my great grandpa was Leonard Dilworth of Medicine Hat and it seems we are both searching for family history. Maybe you can help?
Been a long time since I was last here. What help would you like?
Title: Re: hello there i could really use some help
Post by: KGarrad on Tuesday 13 May 25 06:42 BST (UK)
The previous poster was last online on Friday 26 April 2013, and only made 1 post!