RootsChat.Com

Thank you for looking. I agree that they are too old. Also, Golborne is too far from Birchley (even though she is listed as a Visitor). I think she must have been a child as I have her First Communion certificate which would only have been given to children.

Is anyone related to Thomas Fisher, born in Burtonwood in 1815 and last known in Fisher Street, Widnes in 1881?
His children included Hannah, born 1847, Thomas, born 1849 and Phoebe born in 1851.

I believe that he was my great-great-grandfather, my great-grandfather (Peter Hughes, mother Elizabeth Hughes) being his illegitimate son, but I can't make any further progress.

Hi Valda

Thanks for all your help. I'm pleased that you too think that Peter Hughes is the grandson of Lydia and Joseph. I wonder if, like me, you think that it's not worth pursuing the Mold story?

Re: Thomas Fisher. Burtonwood is near Warrington but also equally close to Parr and Haydock and not very far from Widnes.

You'll have seen that the photo of the alleged brother of Peter Hughes can be dated to 1874. He looks to be about 30 to 35 so he could still be another son of Elizabeth Hughes but since he was not baptised in the lopcal church he was probably not born in Haydock either.

Thank you so much for your assistance. I'm amazed at how quickly you have gathered information which took me weeks to collect.
The 1881 census family you mention are indeed my great grandmother, my grandmother Winifred and her brother and sisters. Peter Hughes aged 30 did marry Alice Tyrer on November 15th, 1871 in Our Lady's Church, Blackbrook (Blackbrook Chapel, Parr in the registry office records in Prescot). The civil registration was in Prescot. Peter's father was not named and the registrar told me that this meant he was illegitimate although in the church marriage book his father was given as Thomas Hughes! This does fit in with the Joseph and Lydia Hughes family which you found in the 1841 census because Betty (Elizabeth) gave birth to a son, Peter, on July 2nd, 1841 who was baptised in Our Lady's Church, Blackbrook on July 11th, 1841. His father was given as Thomas Hughes but the Hughes had a line drawn through it and Fisher written above it in the same handwriting. The official birth certificate does not name the father. The couple had had a daughter, Mary, born October 6th, 1839, baptised October 13th, 1839. Thomas Fisher was also a sponsor to 2 infants in 1849 and 1850 in thesame church but I can't find him in any of the census returns around this time.
Joseph and Lydia also had a son called Peter who was born on July 21st, 1839 and baptised on August 4th, 1839. I've not found any other mention of him.
I think James was Peter's cousin, not his twin, because his mother was Jane Hughes and he was born on September 1st, 1841 and baptised on September 12th, 1841 at Our Lady's, Blackbrook.

I was confident that Elizabeth Hughes' son Peter must be the Peter Hughes who married Alice Tyrer despite my 94 year old relative insisting that Peter came from Mold and spoke Welsh (she also thought his mother was a Fisher). She is totally convinced she is right, as she is about Sir William Hughes, the brother. On the information I had found I had always dismissed these claims so I was stunned to receive the photograph of Sir William Hughes which had been in the family all this time and is in excellent condition. The only place I can see William fitting into the story is as another illegitimate child of Elizabeth Hughes but born elsewhere! This is why I am anxious to trace him.

Peter Hughes as a 9 year old was a scholar, unlike cousin James who was an errand boy. I have a studio photograph of him as a young adult. He owned a lovely pocket watch which he had on him in the pit explosion. The watch is still in the family and which Ian Winstanley photographed for his second book on the disaster. He owned a harmonium and sheet music which I saw as a child and yet he was a coal miner!

Another cousin of mine says that he had been told that Peter was illegitimate and his father had wanted to set him up in business as a pub landlord but he refused.

There was a Thomas Fisher born in Burtonwood and living in Widnes in 1881 who was a grocer and born in 1815. This would make him a suitable age to have been Peter's father. An aunty (now dead) told me that her mother and her aunty (Peter's daughters) sometimes visited their grandfather in Widnes when they were young but they were stopped from going there. She didn't know anything else. (I was told this long before I had started my research)

I can't find anything at all about this Thomas Fisher in earlier years so I'm not able to link the 2.

Sorry to write so much but you've been so helpful I wanted to giveyou the full story as I know it. Everything is certain back to Peter Hughes marrying Alice Tyrer but I'm still not sure I've got the right Peter Hughes before that.

Thanks again,
Cecilia

Thanks for looking. The problem is that I don't have any more details at all about this mystery person. My 94 year old relative has no more details either - just the name and the fact that he was an organist in London. She claims that a priest in the 1930's checked for her and told her she was right! That's all the information I have about him apart from the claim that he is the brother of my great grandfather, Peter Hughes (who was killed in the Wood Pit explosion in Haydock in 1878) who was also a church organist.

I think the best route may be through the photographer's studio as it seems to be a well established one but I'm not sure where to look for any existing records.