« Reply #14 on: Thursday 03 April 14 00:02 BST (UK) »
Let's get some facts on the table!
1851 census: Class: HO107; Piece: 2332; Folio: 735; Page: 15
Ardsley, Yorkshire
Riley, Bernard Head M 60 Weaver of Linen Cloth b Ireland
Riley, Mary Wife F 52 Ireland
Riley, James Son M 23 Weaver of Linen Cloth b Worsbrough, Yorkshire
Riley, Michael Son M 12 b Barnsley, Yorkshire
Riley, Margaret Daughter F 17 Weaver of Linen Cloth b Barnsley
Walton, Sarah Granddaughter F 6 Scholar b Barnsley
Eaton, John Lodger M 45 Weaver of Linen Cloth b York
I think Worsbrough could be a clue to the origins of your ancestors on two accounts. As your family are from Ireland I suspect they could have been catholics and there was a Catholic church in Worsbrough and also in Barnsley where they removed to. I'm not a catholic but I thought their old Latin records made a note of parents and proposers of brides and grooms.
If you look at the large landowner in that district it was the Wentworth family = The Earl Fitzwilliam succeeded to the Wentworth estates in England and
Ireland.
It was quite usual for landowners who wanted to set up a new business to ask their agents to move skilled workers from one place to another. Most large estates keep records and with a bit of luck the Wentworth archivist might have a record of where the skilled Irish flax workers originally lived.
Aberdeen: Findlay-Shirras,McCarthy: MidLothian: Mason,Telford,Darling,Cruikshanks,Bennett,Sime, Bell: Lanarks:Crum, Brown, MacKenzie,Cameron, Glen, Millar; Ross: Urray:Mackenzie: Moray: Findlay; Marshall/Marischell: Perthshire: Brown Ferguson: Wales: McCarthy, Thomas: England: Almond, Askin, Dodson, Well(es). Harrison, Maw, McCarthy, Munford, Pye, Shearing, Smith, Smythe, Speight, Strike, Wallis/Wallace, Ward, Wells;Germany: Flamme,Ehlers, Bielstein, Germer, Mohlm, Reupke