At present Benjamin Crowther is the furthest back we've got in tracing our ancestors in definite terms.
There was a Benjamin christened at Birstall in 1794 to Hannah Crowther, and one christened in the same place in 1795 to William Crowther. Given that our family seems to transmit Christian names from one generation to another, I found it odd that Benjamin's family contained no William.
However, it turns out that a William Crowther aged 2 - son of Benjamin - was buried at Cleckheaton on October 31st 1824. This would suggest that our next ancestor along is, indeed, William. The problem then, is that there are two William Crowthers christened at Birstall in the 1760's. However, one of them has a Dad called Peter - which name never occurs amongst our nineteenth-century ancestors, whilst the one born in 1767 has a Dad called John - which is very much one of our names.
Another intriguing discovery. There is a pub in Cleckheaton - near Scholes - called The Old House at Home. The building can be seen online. It doesn't look pre-twentieth-century, but it may have been re-faced, or built on the site of an earlier pub. Whatever the case, it's surely too much of a coincidence that our George Crowther had a pub of the same name. Maybe he gave it that name as a reminder of where he lived as a child.
It would be interesting to know whether the Cleckheaton pub was, indeed, there in the 1830's, and whether George's pub was given its name when he took it over.
Paul
