Genealogy Chat

I'm looking for more information on a chap appears on the 1861, 1871 and 1881 census listings. It's definitely the same man as the occupations, address, birth date, children and wife all tie up. However, he gives different birthplaces in Cheshire each time. I realise that this can vary for various reasons, however I've reached a wall now because only one of these places seems to be a real - or at least 'Google-able' place. Any suggestions has to how to get around this or is anyone any good at parish names etc., etc in early 19th C. Cheshire? I'm looking for information on either Wirrele (which may be a misspelling of Wirral?) or Brandliff Top.

I had this problem too. It turned out that the places were really one place! My gggrandmother sometimes said the name of the village, sometimes the particular part of the village and sometimes the actual road. I found this out by accident whilst looking through a census listing. I would suggest the best way to go is try the recognisable place and do a search for maps which might show the sub-divisions of the places. On the other hand he may have just been a liar. :-(( Anne

I've found through farther down the tree, that often birthplace is the 'same' place gets called different things as on one census the slightly larger nearby town is listed, on another it's the actual hamlet/village and so on. The problem is that the 'google-able' name Wildboarclough isn't that forthcoming in relating to the other names. One name doesn't appear in any search engines at all and another does appear, Wirrele (which I might have written off as a misspelling of Wirral but is nowhere near Wildboarclough) but it coincidentally gives a transcription of the same Census reading I have, which, unfortunately isn't the area referred to as the birthplace, just the current residence. The chap who has uploaded information on the site has done it for that area and isn't related, so no leads there either.

http://www.andysutton.(co.)uk/snipps.htm Try this site lots of info about Wirral also spelt the way you mention. You should also try just putting Chester. Linda

Could ( Wirrele ) be mis-spelling, and actually be ( Wincle ) Could also be mis-transcribed Roy

Burntcliff Top is a mile or two south of Wildboarclough. Wincle is in the same area, all south-east of Macclesfield

Thanks for the replies, they've all helped.

Part of the problem is down to the fact that in 1871, the question 'Where were you born?' was changed to read 'Where were you born? Give nearest identifiable town'. This was a result of the earlier censuses, on which people had put things like 'Little Mud Bottom' with nothing else to identify the place - didnt mean a thing to those responsible for collating the information. Generally, the earlier the census, the more reliable the birth place, or at least, the more accurate - but again, many people just didnt know where they had been born. Incidentally, I am researching in Cheshire at the moment and I have noticed that for my family, who were near Macclesfield, that although they may have been baptised, say, in St Michael's, Macclesfield, these events seem to be also reported as part of the Prestbury Church Registers - in other words, duplicated entries. So, if you cant find them in/near Macclesfield, look in Prestbury St Peter. Olde Crone

Olde Crone, thanks for the explanation regarding the change of question. I was wondering whether this had taken place, giving less specific answers and giving nearest 'big town' type answers as it this seems to have been the case in the trees I've been working on. I had'nt considered that actual question had changed. So thanks for that. Also, thanks for the tip regarding the duplication of parish records around Macclesfield way. Any idea as to why this was done? Is this common?

Darren I am not sure why the records were duplicated but my guess is this: Prestbury St Peters was a Church which covered more than one Parish and had a huge catchment area. I think it must have been the Mother Church and therefore had jurisdiction over lots of other Churches. I think it must have received these duplicate entries as Bishop's Transcripts from the more local Churches. An example of this: I was tracking down a burial, which appeared no less than three times, in three different records. I thought at first that it referred to three different men with the same name, who had just happened to die round the same date. I eventually worked out what had happened. My man had had a funeral service at the Chapel of ease in his village. This event was reported by the Curate, to his boss at the church of St James, Gawsworth (which oversaw the goings-on at the chapel of ease) and was duly written up in the St James register. But my man was BURIED in St James churchyard, sparking off another entry in St James register. Then all these events were written up in the Bishop's transcripts and reported to St Peter, Prestbury, where they appear yet again. It is only by looking at the ORIGINAL entries that this becomes clear - transcribed records do not give the detail, which explains what went on. This is the only time I have come across such an abundance of over-reporting, but my research is mainly confined to Cheshire and Lancashire. Its always a possibility I suppose, whereever you are researching, and one I will bear in mind in my future researches. Good luck. Olde Crone

OC - my John Watson who in 1851 & 1861 said (helpfully!) he was born in North Shields, by 1871 has decided it was really Moorhouses. I'm still not too sure where he meant - I certainly wouldn't call this an identifiable town! At least I know where to start on the PRs when Newcastle opens again! Darren - I got hold of a large-scale OS map for the area a lot of my rellies came from in Northumberland. It really helped sort out their baptisms & marriages pre-1837 as many of the farmsteads have since developed into villages & so are shown on the map. But they are not indexed on Multimap & Streetmap, and the only results you get when you Google are people like me looking for rellies! I also found an old book about the area incredibly useful because it had old spellings for a lot of the places. (Reedsdale we now know as Redesdale, Allenton became Alwinton etc) Some families seem to have lived halfway between 2 churches & used both at various times. I have one couple married on one day then having a baby baptised the day after in another church! My hubby sorted a couple of his looking at the old-maps site, but I can never get the hang of the navigation.