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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: brits3 on Saturday 15 January 11 09:26 GMT (UK)
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Looking for any information on a Margaret Oldfield born in Leigh 1836. In the 1901 Census in Wigan it was stated she had an adopted son Edwin Ramsdale, my grandfather. It is perplexing that someone unrelated adopted a 16 year old when his mother Esther had family. Have come to a brick wall. Many thanks.
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1891
20 Burns Yard Wigan
Esther Ramsdale 28 single washerwoman b Wigan
Edwin Ramsdale 6 son b Wigan
RG12 3051/52/5
Maybe he was illigitimate and his mother either died or married
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FreeBMD has the death of an Esther Ramsdale, 37 y.o. in Wigan in 1898.
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Just to add to the maybes.Perhaps one of John and Margaret Oldfield's sons was the father of Edwin?
Regards
William Russell Jones.
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1871
John Oldfield 38 draper Leigh
Margaret 36 Leigh
James 14Cheshire
Charles 11 Manchester
Mary Ann 9 Wigan
Peter 8 Wigan
James Roper 16 hairdresser Wigan.
Can't find Margaret in 1881 and 1891 as yet but she is still alive in 1911 but not with edwin.
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Maybe Margaret was just a woman who took Edwin under her wing when his mother died when he was only 13. It may be Esther's family helped with his upkeep. My dad was adopted out as a baby even though his parents had been married for 3 years when he was born but his father was an unreliable %#$@*.
Both his birth parents had many siblings and both sets of parents alive but none of them seemed willing to help. It was the best thing for my dad and us as it turned out. :)
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Peter Oldfield had moved to Yorkshire by 1901 with his wife and brood of children and a coincidens? his 15 year old son was named Edwin. Oh and peter was a hairdresser as was the boarder with his family in 1871
Peter was a soldier in 1881 at Orford Military Barracks, Marsh House Lane, Warrington. No relevance I found it so posted it.
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In 1881 Charles Oldfield was living in Warrington with his wife Elizabeth and Charles was also a hairdresser.
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I can't find anything about the other son James?
Regards
William Russell Jones.
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I can't find anything about the other son James?
Regards
William Russell Jones.
No neither can I or Mary Ann born 1862 and still no luck with Margaret in 1881 and 1891. I have tried all sorts of combinations of names on both ancestry and FindMyPast. I will leave you now - my bedtime.
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Margaret Oldfield was my great great grandmother. I have details of her marriage and children if you are interested. I am currently trying to find what was going on in the mid 1870s also when and where she died. As far as I can tell she and John separated some time 1874/5 and he went on to marry bigamously twice. After his second marriage, he left Wigan and moved to Lymm where he appears on the 1901 census - Margaret reappears on the 1901 census in Wigan living with Edwin. This leads me to think she was living under a false name - at least for the census enumerators - from 1876 to 1901 in Wigan. In 1901, she is living at the address where Edwin's mother died in 1898 - implies she was involved with Esther at that time. Interestingly, Esther is buried in a private not public grave - I wonder who paid for that? Do you have the death certificate and who registered the death?
Assuming Margaret was using a false name, I found a Margaret Bennett, widow, aged 55, needlewoman, born in Leigh (all fits with 1901 entry) living less than 100 yards away from Esther and Edwin in 1891 - could this be Margaret Oldfield?
Another link between the families is that in 1881, Esther was working as a servant for a pawnbroker three doors away from The Shamrock pub where John was landlord with his second 'wife' (John's brother was Charles Oldfield who founded Oldfield's brewery).
I haven't researched Esther's family in detail but she seems to come from a large family - why wasn't Edwin taken in by them? Do you know whether any were still alive/in the area? Again this implies a strong link between her and the Oldfields. She would have been pregnant in 1884. Peter Oldfield married in Barnsley in 1885 but I don't know when he left the militia or where he was in the early 1880's. John James married for the second time in Wigan in 1882 (coincidentally ? to a girl working for a pawnbroker)and was living in Wallgate. Charles married in Warrington in 1880 and went to live there. It is possible Peter, John James or even John (his third wife was 30 years his junior) was the father - or that Margaret was just being a good samaritan and prevented Edwin ending up in the workhouse.
Hope this helps - if you have any of the information mentioned above, please let me know. If you want more information, also let me know
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Thank you for the information. I have a fascination about Esther Ramsdale my great grandmother. I would be happy to share any information with you.
About April this year I went with my husband to Esther's grave in Wigan you were right it was in the non conformist section, the shock when we got though was there was no headstone but graves on either side had. On her grave instead taking up most of the grave space was the biggest oak tree, better than a headstone and it can be seen from everywhere. Obviously the funds didn't run to having her name on a stone. The cemetery worker who was helping us said we could always put a plaque on the tree with her name on it. I did take a photograph which I will send you when I find it on my other computer.
On Edwin Ramsdale's birth certificate there was no father named and Esther registered the birth herself. Born 4 November 1881 at 57 School Lane.
Esther had a large family her parent's looked as though they had split up as in the 1881 census James Ramsdale her father 47 was a lodger at a fish shop 261 Scholes, with the Rigby's - William and Ellen (could be his daughter) and he had 2 sons Robert and Thomas with him. Not sure where his wife Alice was. So no one could take Esther and baby in. She had an older sister Mary. On Esther's death certificate she died of pneumonia and her brother Thomas in attendance he would have been about 24 at the time. Who was the father? Why did Margaret help? Regards Janet