Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Just wondered whether anybody would know anything about the Warrington Branch of the Oddfellows Society.

After asking the branch in Manchester I am told Warrington's branch closed some years ago and it is not known whether any of Warrington's records were kept, if at all. Enquiries at Warrington library drew a blank.

I am hopeful somebody may have squirrelled some records away and forgotten about them!

I'd love to find a photo of my great grandad as he was once (according to one of his son's obituary) the grandmaster of the Warrington branch.

He was James Bramhall 1849 - 1922 and a joiner all his life. I know 3 of his sons were also joiners and one a bricklayer and the very few tales of the Bramhall family tell of them being involved in house building in Warrington. I'm not sure when he was Grandmaster (if he was) although I know he was a member in 1898 from a few diary entries of another member which were given to me.

James' son Joseph (my grandad) died when his own son James (aka Ken), my dad, was only 6 yrs old and unfortunately dad (Ken) died 30 yrs ago, way before I became interested in family history. Consequently apart from a couple of later photos I have little to go on and nobody to ask.

Any other family info from others would be gratefully accepted. I have James' birth family census details 1841,51,61 & 71 but that's as far as am on this line of the family.

Many thanks

Hi Donna
Have you looked in the National Archives?

I did find info on the Runcorn/Halton Oddfellowes in there, here's the email address, it's worth getting in touch.

mailto:recordoffice@cheshire.gov.uk

website
http://www.cheshire.gov.uk/recoff/home.htm

Good luck

Tina

Hi Tina,

Thanks for that. I could have sworn I'd already done this search but not so.

I tried the site and they have a copy of Warrington's Branch rules dated 1870 so that may be worth a look although perhaps there won't be any info on individual members. Still, I'll give it a go.

Thanks again

Donna

Hi Donna
That looks like a good starting point.

All the best & keep us posted.

Tina

Well I checked out the Branch rules but sadly no names mentioned. So , back to the drawing board for me! Anyone any ideas?

Unfortunately having had a similar problem myself with a different society, the only thing I can think of now is the newspapers, however, I've done a search for both his name and Warrington Oddfellows in the publications available online but they don't seem to be covered.

I don't believe there is anything post 1900 online anyway and it would be this time until his death that might be more of interest. I wonder if it would benefit you to search the archives, particularly around the time of his death or have you already checked for an obituary for him as well as for his son?

Hi Mary,
Mant thanks for doing the lookup for me.
Yes, thats where I was headed. I haven't found an obituary for him but I have for his son, my grandfather. That was where I first became aware of the link with the Oddfellows. I feel sure that given he once held the position of Grandmaster of the Warrington branch he must have had a photo taken at some time or be included in records of some sort.
Unfortunatley my grandad died when my dad was only 5 yrs old so my dad knew very little about his own grandfather and dad died when I was in my teens so I never got the chance to talk about family history (or even thought about it). I've checked A2A and am now doing a trawl through the local newspaper so hopefully something will crop up, and possibly much more as all the family seem to have taken part in lots of different sports/singing/acting etc. I have my fingers crossed.
By Archives did you mean at the library?
Thanks again for your interest and help.

I would suspect that Warrington Library would hold the newspaper archives, but if they don't I'm sure they would be able to advise you where to look.

Thanks for the help Mary. I'm part way through the newspaper searches so fingers crossed!
Thanks again
Donna

It's no doubt a big job, but we'll look forward to hearing if you are successful.

hi donna have you tried to do a search of this site if i remember the oddfellows as appear in at least one other topic