For queries within the area of Lancashire between the Ribble and the Mersey.
This board covers the areas of all our Groups - Liverpool, Southport, Warrington, Skelmersdale, Leigh and Widnes.
I have a day booked at Liverpool Record Office tomorrow. I've never been and done anything serious there before just had a look around a number of years ago.
I am going to look at some Quarter Sessions records which I've already booked for the day.
If I have time I thought I could do something for myself but don't know where to start pre civil registration with a city as huge as Liverpool with so many churches.
My other pre civil registration research has been in villages in Cheshire or Wales where the family all were baptised and married in the local church.
My PRITCHARD family were in the Vauxhall area of Liverpool back until the 1841 census and were (as far as I know) Protestant. But where to start looking? I've looked at Lancs OPC and the IGI and I can't see anything for this family but I could be missing something??
I have FMP and The Genealogist but there appears to be next to nothing on these two for Liverpool.
Does this mean I have to trawl through every church in the area like we used to in the olden days of microfilms from the LDS church?
If you don't have a library card don't forget to take a couple of utility bills with you so that you can get set up.
Give Ancestry a go - free at the library, in the card catalogue if you put Liverpool in the keyword, (also do Lancashire marriages/baptims and England) you will get a list of the databases held for Liverpool. There are various databases some of which are prior to 1837, so you may be able to either discount some churches as they are covered, but also sometimes they have included databases from other sources which may not have the images attached, so you might want to check those microfilms if you find an interesting entry.
The staff will help you find the map that notes the churches (one for C of E and one for RC) so you could take a note of the particular churches that would be in your area of interest.
Don't forget to check the index files for St Michael in the City - we believe some of these records have been lost in either the bombing or a fire, can't quite remember which, but perhaps you might be lucky finding that marriage for Brown/Rice and it will save your pocket ordering from the GRO.
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
As regards your Pritchards do you have marriage certificates post 1837. If yes that could be a good start to see if those churches have earlier connections with the families.
Ancestry has a large amount of Liverpool C of E churches, there are gaps and some missing transcriptions. Ancestry is free in Cumbria libraries with your library card.
Maybe give us a name etc as starters and we might be able to find an event that will give you a start.
An address is a good place to start. There are maps of the Church of England parishes in Liverpool at the record Office find your street and you can see the parish and start with that church first.
I'd try Ancestry and the other 2 sites I have given first.
I might be connected to your Athertons as mine lived in Vauxhall at one time and were Protestants. Pritchards do appear on the census records I have for this family and on other records. The 1851 Census has a Martha Pritchard as neice to my William Atherton, bricklayer at 11 Great Oxford Street (later renamed Silvester Street). Pritchards are neighbours in 1861 in Hornby Street. John Pritchard, solicitor's clerk! I think we are connected:-
My great, great grandmother Ann Atherton was born on 31 Oct 1855 in Court 15 in Woodstock Street to William Atherton, journeyman bricklayer and Mary Wright. The parents married on 5 Feb 1845 at St Peter's CE Liverpool. Groom was a brickmaker his father William a shoemaker. Bride's father William Wright was a flax dresser. Witness 1 looks like John Pritchard, witness 2 was Mary Jones.
My William Atherton was baptised at St Peter's CE Liverpool on 22 Jun 1817 his parents lived in Vernon Street and were William Atherton, cordwainer and Mary Worswick. Mary Worswick was born on 27 Mar 1788 and baptised at St Peter's CE Liverpool on 27 Apr 1788. The family lived in Crosshall Street and the parents were Percival Worswick, ropemaker and Martha.
Blue70 wrote:I might be connected to your Athertons as mine lived in Vauxhall at one time and were Protestants. Pritchards do appear on the census records I have for this family and on other records. The 1851 Census has a Martha Pritchard as neice to my William Atherton, bricklayer at 11 Great Oxford Street (later renamed Silvester Street). Pritchards are neighbours in 1861 in Hornby Street. John Pritchard, solicitor's clerk! I think we are connected:-
My great, great grandmother Ann Atherton was born on 31 Oct 1855 in Court 15 in Woodstock Street to William Atherton, journeyman bricklayer and Mary Wright. The parents married on 5 Feb 1845 at St Peter's CE Liverpool. Groom was a brickmaker his father William a shoemaker. Bride's father William Wright was a flax dresser. Witness 1 looks like John Pritchard, witness 2 was Mary Jones.
My William Atherton was baptised at St Peter's CE Liverpool on 22 Jun 1817 his parents lived in Vernon Street and were William Atherton, cordwainer and Mary Worswick. Mary Worswick was born on 27 Mar 1788 and baptised at St Peter's CE Liverpool on 27 Apr 1788. The family lived in Crosshall Street and the parents were Percival Worswick, ropemaker and Martha.
Blue
Looks like we have a connection all right!!! Martha PRITCHARD is my great, great grandmother and eventually I found her in the 1871 census living with her sister Maria who was married to Richard ATHERTON, I *think* that the enumerator heard the word sister and family and mistook it as being Richard's sister when in fact she was Maria's sister and not an ATHERTON at all, that led me a merry dance for a long time.
I have the marriage cert of Maria and Richard 21 January 1866 Richard son of William Atherton, Boatman to Maria daughter of John Pritchard book keeper both gave the residence as Springfield Rd. I was trying to go down the sibling route as Martha's marriage was too difficult to find and I couldn't find her in the 1871 census without some other line to work on, but I've since come to realise she never married at all, I wondered if there was a connection further back or was it a case of boy meets and marries the girl next door?
Education Officer wrote:I think Mary means the Brown/Rice marriage!
As regards your Pritchards do you have marriage certificates post 1837. If yes that could be a good start to see if those churches have earlier connections with the families.
Ancestry has a large amount of Liverpool C of E churches, there are gaps and some missing transcriptions. Ancestry is free in Cumbria libraries with your library card.
Maybe give us a name etc as starters and we might be able to find an event that will give you a start.
An address is a good place to start. There are maps of the Church of England parishes in Liverpool at the record Office find your street and you can see the parish and start with that church first.
I'd try Ancestry and the other 2 sites I have given first.
Thank you Hilary, I'm thinking of giving up my sub to The Genealogist when my sub expires and going with Ancestry as it seems to have more Liverpool records than any other.
In 1841 my PRITCHARD family were living in Feather Street as follows:
John PRITCHARD(*1) was born between 1801 and 1806 in Liverpool, LAN.(*1) He appeared in the census on 6 June 1841 in Liverpool aged 35. Book keeper
Maria PRITCHARD(*1) was born between 1806 and 1811 in Liverpool.(*1) She appeared in the census on 6 June 1841 in Liverpool aged 30.(*1)
+2 Eliza PRITCHARD (1828?- )
+3 Thomas PRITCHARD (1833?- )
+4 Martha PRITCHARD (1839- )
*edited to add that it actually says born in this county not Liverpool, that might have come from later censuses in my family tree programme.
Education Officer wrote:I think Mary means the Brown/Rice marriage!
Ooops - my post above has been changed to correct my error.
Unfortunately Ancestry keep changing as they say "for the better"!!! not so sure their users always disagree.
Don't forget also http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk/ as if you find a marriage on there that isn't available on any of the other sites, at least if a C of E church, it will give you the name of the church and you will be able to look up the microfilm when you are there next week.
Don't forget that if you find a marriage entry on that site that says "Register Office or Registrar Attended" there is a good chance that this marriage took place in an RC church.
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
It's easy for families to forget differences in religion further back. C of E families can be surprised to find Irish or English RCs and RCs who might have thought they were from 100% Irish Catholic stock can be surprised to find English C of E lines that were in the Liverpool area long before the Irish Famine.
Blue70 wrote:I might be connected to your Athertons as mine lived in Vauxhall at one time and were Protestants. Pritchards do appear on the census records I have for this family and on other records. The 1851 Census has a Martha Pritchard as neice to my William Atherton, bricklayer at 11 Great Oxford Street (later renamed Silvester Street). Pritchards are neighbours in 1861 in Hornby Street. John Pritchard, solicitor's clerk! I think we are connected:-
My great, great grandmother Ann Atherton was born on 31 Oct 1855 in Court 15 in Woodstock Street to William Atherton, journeyman bricklayer and Mary Wright. The parents married on 5 Feb 1845 at St Peter's CE Liverpool. Groom was a brickmaker his father William a shoemaker. Bride's father William Wright was a flax dresser. Witness 1 looks like John Pritchard, witness 2 was Mary Jones.
My William Atherton was baptised at St Peter's CE Liverpool on 22 Jun 1817 his parents lived in Vernon Street and were William Atherton, cordwainer and Mary Worswick. Mary Worswick was born on 27 Mar 1788 and baptised at St Peter's CE Liverpool on 27 Apr 1788. The family lived in Crosshall Street and the parents were Percival Worswick, ropemaker and Martha.
Blue
Yes this is my great grandmother Martha PRITCHARD as a niece and 11 years old working as a servant to your William ATHERTON. I had noted before they had 2 little ones including baby Martha ATHERTON so she must have been brought in to help out mum with the kids.
This is why I'd said earlier that I thought there was another connection but I couldn't quite remember why I thought that, now I do looking at my 1851 census printout again, as Martha's sister Maria didn't marry Richard ATHERTON until 14 years later........
I'm struggling to find a baptism for Martha do you have her birth certificate to confirm her mother's maiden name? Here are two baptisms:-
Baptism: 9 Nov 1829 St Peter, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Eliza Pritchard - [Child] of John Pritchard & Maria
Abode: Circus St
Occupation: Book Keeper
Baptised by: J. Pulford Curate
Register: Baptisms 1829 - 1830, Page 156, Entry 1248
Source: LDS Film 93878
Baptism: 19 Sep 1836 St Peter, Liverpool, Lancashire, England
Thomas Prichard - [Child] of John Prichard & Maria
Abode: Myrtle St
Occupation: Book keeper
Baptised by: Richd. Appleton Curate
Register: Baptisms 1836 - 1837, Page 234, Entry 1869
Source: LDS Film 1656422
Blue70 wrote:Is this John and Maria's marriage in 1825?
St James CE Toxteth
Blue
I've got my doubts about this marriage now. There was an Ann Leader Pritchard born to these two in the USA she is living with her grandfather Peter Leader in 1841 and 1851 in Mulberry Street Liverpool. Her 1858 marriage to Owen Broadbent at St Bride's Liverpool has the father as John Pritchard, merchant (deceased).
I am looking for the marriage of John PRITCHARD to Maria (unknown) they both say they are from Liverpool, John born about 1805-1811 (various censuses) and Maria about 1808 - 1813 (ditto).
I have them in the censuses for 1841, 1851 and 1861 then nothing. Mind you the name is so common in Liverpool it may as well be Wales!!! I have tried searching for their deaths after 1861, but I do find deaths in Liverpool to be one of the hardest things to find.
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
I've only found baptisms for 2 so far, Eliza and Mary. There may be more children who were born and died between censuses as that's what Mary did and there are quite a few age gaps.
Eliza 1829
Thomas 1834
Martha 1839
Maria 1842
Mary 1846-1846
Ann 1847
John 1852
If one of the baptisms give the exact date of birth, and many of them do, then the best way forward is with the birth certificate so that you can get her maiden name.
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
