Grandfather, Ray HOUSE’s birthday book from 1900.

Posted on June 21, 2026 by Geniejen
Ray’s 1900 Birthday book

This is probably my most precious heirloom and one of the very few that have come down to me as my mother’s family didn’t keep and pass things down to the next generation. Ray was my maternal grandfather but he had died 20 years before I was born; so obviously, I never met him. Mum didn’t talk about him much but as she was only 10 when he died, it must have been very difficult for her. I was only 19 when she died; so perhaps, if she had lived longer we would have talked more about him. She did treasure his birthday book and his autograph book.

Ray was named Raymond James (1889-1928) HOUSE by his mother, Pauline Agnes (1854-1930) SANDMANN HOUSE when he was born in Albury, NSW. He was born only a couple of months after the tragically early death of his father, James William (1857-1889) HOUSE also in Albury.

Ray was the youngest of 5 children born to Pauline and James (Jim). When his father died in June 1889, he and Pauline had already buried a daughter, Hilda in 1885.

Luckily for me, there is an inscription inside that says “To Ray, From Simon for his 9th birthday” so we know how old the book is but I don’t know who Simon was.

I don’t know how long Pauline remained in Albury after the death of her husband but she was still there in 1891 as she appears in the 1891 NSW census. After that, I lost track of her till 1898 when she started advertising her new business, a Confectionery and Fruit shop in the Corowa Free Press. I wrote about her 13 years in business in Corowa in this post. This town was just upriver from Albury but she never returned to Albury as far as I can see. She and most of her 4 children remained in Corowa till 1911; after that from following her on electoral rolls and directories, I believe she spent the rest of her life in Melbourne.

I believe that Ray’s 11th birthday took place in Corowa and certainly, I recognise some of the surnames in his birthday book as being from Corowa. I really admire the courage of my great grandmother, Pauline.

Presumably, Ray recorded his own birthday first.

Ray has obviously written most of the names himself but a few are quite unique, so I think that he asked some people to sign their own names including Hugh FRASER, David B HAIG (a brother in law who married his sister, Clarice in 1910) and his eldest brother, Percy (1878-1938).

RAYMOND’s FAMILY

Raymond’s mother, Pauline Agnes SANDMANN HOUSE
This is Raymond’s eldest brother, Percy Charles HOUSE who would have been 11 years old when their father died and I wonder if he looked after his little brother later in life. On the same day is the entry for Pauline’s sister, Emma SANDMANN who married William GLOVER in 1875. In 2020 I wrote a post about Percy’s life and you can find it here.
Ray’s eldest sister, Mildred who married Thomas W. McRAE in 1911 in Paddington, Sydney
Ray’s sister Clarice who was the nearest in age to him and married David B. HAIG in 1910 in Corowa.
Love this entry, it’s clearly Mum’s birthday written by her when she was quite young. Love the way she describes herself as Miss M. House!
Great Uncle Percy HOUSE’s wife, Florence Ayres whom he married in 1910 in Melbourne.

In 1916, Ray married my grandmother, Alma (1894-1972) Margaret LENNON (known to me as Nana) in North Fitzroy and so from then, the birthday book contains the birthdays of our LENNON family.

Raymond’s father in law, Thomas (1861-1923) LENNON and my great grandfather born in Portaferry, Co. Down
Raymond’s mother in law, Mary (1855-1942) PRENDERGAST LENNON and my great grandmother, born in Melbourne not long after her parents arrived from Co. Galway
One of Raymond’s sisters in law, Mary W. (1888-1965) HUGO LENNON and my great aunt Mary (see my post about her watch)
This is Ray’s brother in law, Will HUGO who married Alma’s older sister, Mary in 1914, also in Melbourne. This page also shows when I started adding entries by recording the birthdays of my father and grandfather.

Ray’s other sister in law, Elsie (1891-1986) LENNON who was also an older sister to his wife, Alma.

I’ve often wondered how Ray’s mother, Pauline Agnes SANDMANN HOUSE managed after her husband died in 1889 while she was about 6 months pregnant with Ray. By then, she had 3 older surviving children and presumably, no income. There was also no social security available then.

She was still in Albury in 1891 according to the 1891 NSW Census. She said there were 1 male and 3 females in the house so either Percy who was 13 years by then, was away working or baby Raymond was in Melbourne with one of Pauline’s family.

From James’ will and probate, I can see she inherited 800 pounds which may have been savings and/or real estate they had. We don’t know if they owned their home, Epping Villa in George St. but Pauline was still there in 1891 as mentioned above.

So my theory is that Pauline left Albury sometime after the birth of Ray and death of his father for the support of her mother and half sister who had moved to Carlton from the TOPP farm after 1893 when her stepfather had died. Her mother, Maria Dorothea SCHULTZ SANDMANN TOPP would have understood the difficulties she faced as she herself was widowed when Pauline was 6 years old and left with 5 children. Her solution was to marry Johann TOPP and have 4 more children while Pauline never remarried. In summary, Pauline seems to have stayed in Albury for a few years, moved to Carlton to be near her mother and half sister and then in 1898 bought a business in Corowa with her son, Percy. See my evidence for this theory below.

This is the first advertisement Pauline and Percy placed in the Corowa Free Press in 1898 which indicates she and the children had moved there.

The fact that she mentions in this ad that she was from Carlton and Albury suggests she was in business in Carlton before going to Corowa, which is upriver from Albury. Presumably she sold the house in Albury if it was hers to sell.

That mention of Carlton is interesting as I have read in our family history book, The Wellersdorf Migration: A History of the SCHULTZ, SANDMANN and TOPP families that Ray’s aunt, Maria Elizabeth TOPP MOTTON and his grandmother, Maria Dorothea SCHULTZ SANDMANN TOPP moved from the TOPP family farm in Warragul, Victoria after 1893 when their husband and father died. They moved to Carlton where Maria Elizabeth used her training as a dressmaker (she trained in Fitzroy in as a dressmaker) to support them. I found the following gem in the Wellersdorf book recorded in 1947 by Phillip Richardson.

Ray was definitely with his mother in Corowa in 1900 as he was listed as winning a Sunday School prize in Sixth class in that year. So that matches with the date on this book.

Ray recorded the names of his mother’s sister and his aunt Emma SANDMANN as Mrs Glover and his mother’s half sister, Maria Elizabeth TOPP and his aunt as Mrs G. MOTTON. Maria married George MOTTON in Poowong, Victoria in 1897. For younger readers in those days and right up to the 1960’s, married women were addressed by their husband’s name, not their own. Even when I married in the 1960’s, mail would be addressed to me as Mrs. R. Gay when my initial is “J”. Hard to believe and I think I was among the first to always use my own initial when I could.

It’s interesting now to look back at the list of Pauline’s sisters and brothers to realise that only 2 of her 9 siblings and half siblings are listed by Ray in his birthday book which leads me to wonder if they didn’t or weren’t able to offer support to her.

What I haven’t considered before was if any of the HOUSE family living in Albury and Wodonga helped Pauline in those terrible months after her husband died and after Ray was born. On his wedding certificate in 1877, James said his parents were Charles and Ann HOUSE but they were actually his grandparents. His birth certificate and his entry in the Baptism register didn’t name his father. His birth mother, Jane HOUSE SINNETT was living over the river in Wodonga with her family of 10 children. James wasn’t listed on her death certificate like the other children she had with her husband, James SINNETT. He was born before that marriage. So I don’t think he had a relationship with her but we’ll never know. There is no evidence of the HOUSE family in his birthday book. His grandparents, Charles and Ann HOUSE who presumably brought him up died in 1884 and 1888 so were gone by the time he was born.

Jane came from Drayton in Somerset to Sydney in 1885 with her parents and 4 younger siblings; 3 of those were still alive when Ray was young but their names don’t appear in this birthday book so they can’t have been in his life.

I’ve attended 2 reunions of the SCHULTZ family in Victoria in 1999 and 2012 and have the amazing family history book called The Wellersdorf Migration; The story of the SCHULTZ, SANDMANN and TOPP families compiled by some amazing family historians in Victorian. At the first reunion, I met a couple of the older members who had a vague memory of Ray being with the extended family during his childhood but they didn’t remember any details.

This is a list of all the names and dates that Ray collected in his birthday book. You may be descended from some of these people and if so, I would love to hear from you at geniejen3@gmail.com.

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Great Aunt Mary’s Flinders St. R.T.S. watch from 1941

Posted on May 30, 2026 by Geniejen

My mother’s maternal family, the PRENDERGAST’s, the LENNON’s and the MAGEE’s lived in Melbourne after emigrating from Ireland. The PRENDERGAST’s came in 1854 from Ardrahan, Co. Galway, the MAGEE’s came in 1864 from Portaferry, Co. Down and the LENNON’s also came from Portaferry in 1870. In 2001, I wrote and published a series of blog posts about my LENNON and MAGEE families which start here.

My mother had 2 living aunts on her mother’s side, Mary and Elsie (1891-1986). I can’t remember meeting Great Aunt Mary but I must have done during the 2 years we lived in Melbourne when I was young.

Great Aunt Mary (1888-1965) LENNON married William John HUGO in St Brigid’s Catholic Church in North Fitzroy in 1914. They didn’t have a family; in fact, mum was the only grandchild from the 4 daughters of Thomas (1861-1923) and Mary (1855-1942) LENNON.

I wonder if Mary met Will thru her father, Thomas as they both worked in the Victorian Railways; you can read about them in my post R is for the Railway Workers .

Mary and Will died only weeks apart in 1965. I recall that Mum went back to Melbourne by Overland train and brought back Uncle Will’s stamp collection for me and Auntie Mary’s watch for herself. I now have the watch and I’m curious about why it was presented to Great Aunt Mary. It’s quite a beautiful watch but I’ve been unable to find out which organisation or company presented it to her. You can see the detailed inscription from 1941 on the back.

I’ve assumed in the past that because her husband worked for the Victorian Railways that she was either an employee or a volunteer at the Flinders St. Station during WW2. In 1941, she would have been 53 years old so perhaps it was a retirement gift?

I’ve asked the State Library of Victoria and they couldn’t locate an organisation that matched those letters. I’ve asked a Victorian Railways historian and he couldn’t come up with anything either. I’ve also tried several searches on Trove.

I started this post a few weeks ago and recently decided to ask Google A1 and below is the answer which seems a distinct possibility so to me.

Google AI May 2026

A second search with the same query a few weeks later, gave me more choices not offered the first time. This time, it listed the Radio Technical School, Railway Transport Services/Staff or the Returned Travellers’ Soldiers (Association or Club). I foresee more research in my future!

EPSON MFP image

If you have any knowledge of this organisation or company responsible for this gift; I’d really like to hear from you at geniejen3@gmail.com

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Laurence (Larry) BAMFORD’s RAAF service with the Marine Section during WW2.

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Geniejen

Dad enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in Nov 1939 in Brisbane, Queensland. Probably because at the time he was working on boat,s mainly on the Brisbane river, he was allocated to the Marine Section. This was a small but nevertheless, important part of the RAAF.

The RAAF had a number of seaplanes based around Australia from the 1920’s, probably the Catalina’s are the most well known. The RAAF needed people in boats to take the air crews to and from to their planes, to repair, refuel and load rations and bombs. The Marine Section had about 20 types of boats including refuelling barges to refuel the planes on the water. The Marine section also had to check the takeoff area for debris and were also responsible for manning crash boats to retrieve downed air men. It was the RAAF pilots who flew these planes. There were women in the WAAF but I don’t know much about them.

There were several types of boats (around 20); some were bomb scow, refuelling barge, crash boat, work boat, landing barge, Air Sea Rescue boat, Fire tender boat p.28 Jubbs

“Training of personnel to man thee vessels was an urgent priority, so a call for volunteers from within the RAAF was made. RAAF Rathmines on Lake Macquarie (See p.29 for more info) became the training establishment for boat handlings and operation …” Jubbs

later Advanced Coxswain training was at Rathmines Jubb p30

He served in a number of bases in Victoria, NSW and Queensland from ’39 – Dec’ 44 when he and 5 other men were sent from Melbourne in a leaky, refurbished/converted river picnic launch up the EAst coast – I don’t imagine they knew they would end up in Papua (now Papua New Guinea) in July ’45 and still be there till early Nov ’45. One of the Japanese surrenders took place on 6th sept off Rabaul in New Britain on the HMS Glory. Add dad’s photo

He wrote a short story of the first night when they left Williamstown

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Z is for John Thomas HEANEY, eldest brother to my grandmother, Lily.

Posted on April 30, 2025 by Geniejen

Again, I can’t think of a Z word that fits with my family history so I’m going to disregard that and write about the eldest brother of my grandmother, Lily (1882-1926) HEANEY BAMFORD’s called John (1880-1920) Thomas HEANEY. And as I typed that I realised that he was named for both his grandfathers. His paternal grandfather was John HEANEY and his maternal grandfather was Thomas STONEHEWER/STONELY/STONIER.

John was the only child of Peter and Mary Ann HEANEY to get 2 names forenames and he wasn’t born in the Macclesfield Workhouse like at least 2 of the others were including my grandmother. He was the first of 3 sons and I haven’t found a record of him in the Macclesfield Workhouse when his mother was in there giving birth to Lily in 1882 and Thomas in 1884 so he must have been living with some one else.

While I was checking some information while I was writing up this post, Ancestry suggested that I look at this baptism record and to my surprise, it is the baptism of John Thomas HEANEY with the correct parents listed. So John was baptised in a Whalley non-conformist chapel in Sept, 1882 only 4 months after his mother, Mary Ann gave birth to my grandmother, Lily in Macclesfield. Google maps tells me that Whalley is well north of Macclesfield and is today an hour’s drive or 15 hrs if you’re walking.

So my next question was did his parents move there and have him baptised or was he already with his adoptive parents, William and Margaret POWDRILL and they had him baptised? Keep in mind that Mary Ann was back in Macclesfield in 1884 giving birth to Thomas in the Macclesfield Workhouse.

Here is the 1891 census when he was 11 years old and Mary Anne has set up her own household with her other 3 children in Macclesfield but John Thomas and his father, Peter are missing.

So I went onto later census’ and John Thomas turned up in the 1901 and 1911 census’ living in Oswaldtwistle, Accrington, Lancashire with William and Margaret POWDRILL, an older couple. In 1911 he was described as “Son – Adopted”, in 1901, he was described as ‘Boarder”.

John Thomas was working as a Cotton Weaver in both 1901 and 1911 census. This map shows the places that he lived in with the POWDRILL’s and as a married man. Crawshawbooth is where his adoptive mother, Margaret was born. I still have no idea how they came to adopt him in Macclesfield.

So I went back to the 1891 census and looked for the POWDRILL couple and they had a child called John Thomas POWDRILL listed as a “Visitor”, born in Macclesfield and of the right age for my John T. By 1901 and 1911 census’, he was listed under his birth surname so with the evidence from the later census’, I believe that somehow, John Thomas was given to or adopted by the POWDRILL family.

When he died in 1920, his occupation was described as an Overlooker, Cotton Weaving Shed in Stockport, Cheshire.

In 1906, there are a number of mentions in the local newspaper in Accrington of a player called HEANEY playing regularly for the Oswaldtwistle Rovers which was the area he lived in with the POWDRILL’S. I can’t find a list of players with their first names so could just be a red herring.

In 1911, he married Alice NEVILLE in St James, Accrington, Lancashire, they were both 30 which I imagine was rather old for that time and were both described as Weavers. Rarely have I seen a woman’s occupation listed on her marriage certificate so perhaps things were changing in 1911.

This has recently sent to me by a new cousin and it’s a studio portrait of Alice NEVILLE, it is undated but the gorgeous dress suggests late 1890’s thru to early 1900’s.

They had 2 sons, Alan and Frank born in 1912 and 1915 in Accrington, Lancashire

WW1 started in 1914 and he enlisted in the Machine Gun Corps, East Lancashire and here is his medal card.

John served in India and this wonderful photo of him came again from my newest cousin. These photos are so precious.

He survived the war but died soon after in Brinnington Military Hospital.

My first assumption was that the war obviously ruined his health as he died in 1920 in Brinnington Hospital which was a hospital for neurological illnesses ie shell shock. But his death certificate said he died with a cerebral tumour and asthenia.

The card below shows the Army’s calculation of the pension that the Army decided on for his widow, Alice and her family. First thing I noticed is that she’s only got 1 child and I had noticed that on her entry in the 1921 census so I presume that Frank born in 1915 has predeceased his father.

I don’t fully understand this calculation as there are 2 different pension rates on this card. The first is £1 16 shillings and 8 pence and the second one is £2 2 shillings and 4 pence and this is described as an alternative pension. It was settled 10 months after he died so goodness how Alice managed. But it was back dated to his death date.

John Thomas was buried in a very small Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Church and Clayton-Le-Moors in Lancashire near where he and his family lived. It’s a shared cemetery with the parish church and contains 15 war graves.

His interment was listed in the local paper, The Accrington Observer and Times.

A few days later, his wife Alice placed a thank you notice in the same paper thanking family and friends and all his fellow workers at Peel Mill.

This was his widow, Alice’s entry in the 1921 census the year after John Thomas died. She has her son, Alan with her and is boarding a married couple, presumably to help pay the rent.

In the 1939, some nearly 40 years later, Alice is living with her son, Alan and his wife, Elma/Alma still in the village of Church, Lancashire

These 2 cards appear to be recording the destruction of John Thomas’ file in 1927.

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Y is for Grandad’s siblings and their families

Posted on April 29, 2025 by Geniejen

My grandfather, Sam (Samuel) BAMFORD was born in 1888 in Macclesfield, Cheshire to James (1848-1913) BAMFORD and Clarissa (1850-1928) PENNISTONE. He was their fifth and last child. He had 3 older brothers, Alfred, William and Jack (John James) and one older sister, Ginny (Sarah Jane).

Alfred, Jack, Ginny and Sam remained in Macclesfield for their entire lives while William moved to Manchester, about 21 miles north of Macclesfield.

This fan chart shows the details of the ancestors of Sam and his siblings. It also shows me, the researcher where my brick walls are waiting to be scaled.

Below is a summary of the descendants of each of Sam’s siblings.

Brother no. 1 – Alfred (1870-1930) BAMFORD and his descendants

Alfred was born about 1870, married Elizabeth HOLEBROOK in 1894 and they had a son and a daughter.

Alfred (1870-1930) senior who died in 1930 so I’m thinking this is in the 1920’s in Macclesfield.

Gladys (1897-1971) BAMFORD and Harry HOWARTH on their wedding day in 1923 at St. Peter’s church, Prestbury in Macclesfield

Brother no. 2 William (1872-1916) BAMFORD and his descendants

I believe this is a 1918 photo of William A. BAMFORD, eldest son of William snr. in WW1

I don’t know how these photos ended up in my care. Growing up in Australia, there wasn’t any mention of Great Uncle William and his family.

Sister – Ginny (Sarah Jane 1876-1965) BAMFORD and her partner, William McCormick

I believe this is an early studio portrait of Aunt Ginny, perhaps in the late 1890’s
Again I’m guessing that this might be in the 1920’s when she was in her forties.

This is Aunt Jinny in 1954 with one of my BAMFORD aunts and a cousin were in Macclesfield for a family wedding.

This is what I’ve researched on her partner/spouse William McCORMICK – My RootsMagic database displays the results as though there were parents. She was 47 years when she started living with William McCORMICK in 1921. I can’t find a marriage for this couple and I’ve written about it this month in M is for the McCORMICK family.

Brother no.3 – Jack (John James) (1880-1938) BAMFORD and his descendants.

I believe this is my Great Uncle Jack BAMFORD

Jack also married one of the HOLEBROOK sisters, Annie in 1900 in St Peter’s church in Prestbury, Macclesfield. They had 2 sons, Norman and Gordon.

I don’t know any of Jack’s descendants but would love to make contact. Please email me at geniejen@gmail.com.

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X is for Extras – Photos of the BAMFORD family

Posted on April 28, 2025 by Geniejen

For some reason, I always find the last letters of the alphabet really hard to match up with my family history. So this post is just a small collection of family photos I have which I wasn’t able to use in the previous posts. I want to make them available and not just keep them on my laptop. I’m happy to share high resolution copies with family. Please email me at geniejen3@gmail.com.

This is my grandmother, Lily HEANEY BAMFORD with my father, Laurence and his younger brother in about 1915.

This one is of Grandad Sam BAMFORD, my grandmother, Lily HEANEY BAMFORD, with my father, Laurence and my uncle in about 1918. I have colourised it.

I’m guessing that this lovely family group on an outing was taken in about 1920 when Dad was 10 years old and before the boys’ sister, Lily was born. I notice that dad has a pair of binoculars which I wouldn’t have thought they could afford. I do love my grandmother’s hat, they took us so much room.

This is my dad, Laurence in a charabanc, presumably on a day trip. I can’t see his parents but most of the ladies have hats covering their faces. I’m guessing this is about 1923 when he was 13 years. He left England in 1927 and he was small for his age.

I do love this one, it’s my Grandfather, Sam and his 3rd wife and the Grandmother, Winifred BROUGH BAMFORD in my lifetime on holiday in 1937 in Scarborough. I do so love the plus fours Grandad is wearing. I wonder what’s in the brown paper parcel, perhaps the family’s picnic? Or have they been shopping while on holidays? I was able to copy this wonderful photo during my first trip to England.

This in my grandfather, Sam BAMFORD in his backyard in 1939 with his first grandchild and I’m told he was wearing his special occasion Salvation Army uniform with red, black and white stripes.

This is a classic wartime photograph of a soldier in uniform with pictures of his wife and family. It is my uncle who served with the British Army in the RAOC and REME. And I’ve just noticed the studio was Photo London in Cairo so that also confirms he served in Egypt as I thought.

Dad received this postcard in Australia and I was surprised to see that Grandad (blue writing) was on holidays while the war was still going on. As Dad was at sea from Dec. ’44 to Nov. ’45, I don’t if he received any mail but I’m sure that after Mum and Dad were married in June ’44, that Grandad would have had Mum’s Melbourne address.

Grandad Sam BAMFORD and one of his sons in 1946 in their Salvation Army Uniforms taken in the back yard in Macclesfield.

1952 Grandad BAMFORD and Grandma Winifred. I love Grandad’s comments on this photo which he sent to my family and that he always wrote DAD in upper case.

Here is a colourised version of the above photo. The colour certainly adds to the enjoyment of the photo.

Grandad Sam BAMFORD in his Salvos band uniform

A cousin living in Bollington who was crowned Rose Queen in the 1950’s.

Here is my colourised version

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W is for World War One and Two

Posted on April 27, 2025 by Geniejen

I’m told that in World War 1, Grandad Sam BAMFORD didn’t enlist and no one knows why. Perhaps as a silk dyer he was in a protected occupation? But I understand he volunteered with St John Ambulance and I have been given these 2 photos. I have circled Grandad in both of them and the nurse’s uniforms indicate that it was during or after WW1.

In the second one, I have circled my own father born in 1910, so surely, the second one must be dated soon after the war as dad looks about 9 or 10 so that would date it to 1919 -1920. That little girl in the middle of the front row could even be my Auntie Lily born in 1921 which would push the date out further to 1923 or 1924.

If anyone can confirm my assumptions or provide new evidence, I’d love to hear from you, so please email me at geniejen3@gmail.com.

Dad said this was his Uncle Tom HEANEY (brother of my grandmother, Lily HEANEY BAMFORD) in his St John Ambulance uniform, perhaps he’s in one of the pictures above.

In WW2, both my father, Larry BAMFORD and his brother enlisted on different sides of the world. Dad enlisted in Brisbane in the RAAF in Nov 1939 and was allocated to the Marine Section, probably because he’d been working on boats on the Brisbane River prior to war breaking out. Both of these photos were taken at Pt Cook in ’41 or ’42.

I’ve prepared some info about his life and early war experiences in the following post and I realise that I need to do another one about the years before he sailed up the east coast.

Larry BAMFORD from Birth to War

In the last 11 months of his war, he was sent in a small boat with 5 other RAAF men from Melbourne to Papua. The first day and night was spent in a storm leaving Port Philip Bay (Melbourne) in a badly leaking boat and sailing along the south eastern coast.

He wrote a short story about that first part of the trip. I transcribed it and added some photos to this post, The Voyage of RAAF 015-17 (the Govilon).

He also kept a very detailed log of 33 foolscap pages of the 11 month journey which I spent several months last year deciphering. I also learnt a lot about the geography of the east coast and PNG while doing it. In September, accompanied by some members of my family, we donated both the original books, my transcriptions, some other documents and photos to the Pt Cook RAAF Museum outside Melbourne. They are now available to researchers.

Each of these 3 posts cover 10 pages of his log book and my transcriptions.

1944-1945 The last year of Laurence (Larry) BAMFORD’s war with the RAAF in Australia and PNG Pt.1

1944-1945 The last year of Laurence (Larry) BAMFORD’s war with the RAAF in Australia and PNG Pt.2

1944-1945 The last year of Laurence (Larry) BAMFORD’s war with the RAAF in Australia and PNG Pt.3

On the other side of the world, my uncle also enlisted and I don’t know much about his service except that I believe it was with the RAOC which during the war became REME. From the two photos I have, it appears he served in Egypt and perhaps France and Belgium. Interesting to me is that my father in law also served in RAOC and REME and spent nearly 5 years in Egypt. I wrote a number of posts about his experiences 2 years ago in the 2023 April A-Z Blogging Challenge.

My uncle is in the middle of this group having their shoes shined and below enjoying some leave in Cairo.

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W is for the WORTHY, PENNISTONE and TAYLOR families of Bonsall, Cromford and Wirksworth in Derbyshire

Posted on April 26, 2025 by Geniejen

The BAMFORD family and some of the other families that married into the BAMFORD family – WORTHY, PENNISTONE and TAYLOR, all came from Staffordshire and Derbyshire. The HEANEY’s and BARLOW came to Macclesfield from Manchester and the HARRISON’s who were in Cheshire already, As for the DAVIES family, that’s a secret to be unlocked one day!

My great grandmother, Clarissa (1850-1928) PENNISTONE was born in Bollington which is very close to Macclesfield and married James (1848-1913) BAMFORD in 1870 in the same town. On some documents, her name is written as Clara Esther.

Cross in Bonsall

This map shows the relative closeness of Macclesfield and Bonsall but there is the Peak District National Park in between those towns and having driven thru some of it, I can easily imagine it would have been quite a difficult route. I don’t imagine there was a train so I guess they walked or had a horse and cart or maybe there was a stagecoach they could have used?.

Google maps tells us that it would be an 11 hour walk now and that’s on proper roads.

Below is a copy of the 1851 census record of John (1815-1873) PENNISTON and Sarah (1813-1879) DAVIES with Clarissa listed as their first child in Bollington. John gave his birthplace as Bonsall while Sarah said she was born in West Canterbury. Sarah is one of my highest brick walls, as I haven’t been able to find out anything of her life before her marriage.

Below is their 1848 Marriage certificate from St Peter’s in Prestbury, Macclesfield – a very popular church amongst my ancestors.

Clarissa’s father was John (1814-1873) PENNISTON (sometimes spelt PENNISTONE) who was born like his ancestors over the county border in Bonsall, Derbyshire. You can see this on the 1851 census record above the marriage certificate.

Her mother was Sarah DAVIES who said on their Marriage record that she was from Cambridge and they were married in 1848 in Bollington, just down/up the road from Macclesfield.

Clarissa’s grandparents were John (1791-1860) PENNISTON born in Cromford in Derbyshire and Hannah (1791-1857) WORTHY born in Bonsall, Derbyshire.

Bonsall is a small village still today with about 780 people in 2021 yet, they have an amazing history group who have published all the publications in this picture.

This is from the 1841 census showing John and Hannah living with their children in Bonsall. I wrote about the family being Framework Knitters in Bonsall .

By 1851, the family have settled in Bollington, Macclesfield, Cheshire.

You can see their Derbyshire birth places in the last column. Note that living in the same street and only 1 house away is an Elijah WORTHY with his family, he’s considerably younger than Hannah and born in a different town to her but still in Derbyshire. Perhaps he was a nephew who had also moved to Bollington.

This is the marvellous map produced by the Bonsall History Group, I had to put it on the floor to be able to take a photograph.

This is Hannah PENNISTONE’s entry on the Burial register in the CE church in Bollington in 1857 when she was 66 years old.

I have traced Hannah’s family back to her grandfather, Elijah Sen. (1724-1797) WORTHY. However, in checking something for this post, I found there were more Parish registers online for the parish of Bonsall than the last time I looked which I shall have to investigate further.

This is very possibly the burial entry for Hannah’s grandfather, Elijah WORTHY but I can’t prove it. The minister kindly added the ages of the persons whom he buried to his register which I really appreciate. This would put his birth being approximately 1724.

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V is for my BAMFORD family in the Macclesfield Workhouse

Posted on April 25, 2025 by Geniejen

Several years ago, in my RootsMagic database , I recorded that my grandfather, Sam BAMFORD and his mother, Clara were admitted into the Macclesfield Workhouse on 3 Nov 1898 but I don’t have an image or a printout of that record and annoyingly, I can’t find it on FMP or FamilySearch now (which I’ve recorded as my source).

Sam and his mother, Clara were discharged when he was 11 years old on 31 Oct 1899 (which this week both FMP and FamilySearch have recorded as an Admission when it’s clearly a Discharge). I’ve sent a correction to FMP.

This is the Macclesfield workhouse Discharge Book showing them leaving at Clara’s request Oct. 31st 1899.

This page from the Admission Book for the Macclesfield Workhouse shows that my great grandfather, James BAMFORD born in 1848 was admitted on April 11th in 1899 when Clara and Sam have already been there for months. I notice that the other inmates have occupations listed but James doesn’t which is odd since he’s only 51 years old. Perhaps he’s ill or disabled and that’s why he’s applied for assistance.

James left a week later leaving his family behind till they left in Oct.

I wrote in detail about the Macclesfield workhouse in O is for Oakum and the Macclesfield workhouse last week.

Living a long way from England, I never met my grandfather, Sam (1888-1977) BAMFORD. My cousins tell me that at times he would mention his time in the workhouse picking oakum and his determination to work hard and provide well for his family.

Picking oakum was a tedious task to unpick old ship’s ropes so that the looser fibre could be sold and reused as caulking, to wrap and insulate pipes and on making boats seaworthy. Apparently it was very hard and painful on the fingers. Inmates were expected to pick a certain weight each day.

I found more information on Wikipedia if you are interested in learning more about the picking and uses for oakum.

There is a marvellous website called The Workhouse, the story of an Institution which has been painstakingly research by Peter Higginbotham and had a fantastic reproduction of an article from the Macclesfield Courier and Herald in 1888 describing in great detail the activity in the workhouse. It did sound a bit pollyanna-ish to me but it’s gives a clear idea of how families were split up and the work they did if that were able bodied. Remember, the workhouse looked after the elderly, frail, disabled as there wasn’t any aged or medical care unless you could afford to see a doctor.

Here there is a whole page of Peter’s site devoted to the Macclesfield Workhouse with detailed history, plans of the site and mostly modern photos of the many buildings that comprised the site.

This is a plan of the layout of the site from Peter’s site.

This description of the English workhouses is from Find My Past who have a large collection of Cheshire Workhouse records.

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act established nine poor-law unions in Cheshire, each with its own workhouse. Workhouses were supposed to be a deterrent to the able-bodied pauper. Under the Act, poor relief would only be granted to those who passed the “workhouse test”, in other words you would have to be desperate to enter a workhouse. They were there for the truly destitute, the so-called “incompetent poor” – an able bodied man could only enter if his family came with him.

The elderly, the infirm, orphans, the mentally ill and single mothers were all accommodated but life inside the workhouse was intended to be as off putting as possible. Men, women, children, the infirm and the able-bodied were all housed separately. Food was basic and monotonous – gruel, a watery porridge, or bread and cheese. Inmates had to wear the rough workhouse uniform and sleep in dormitories and baths were allowed, supervised, once a week.

The able bodied were given hard work, stone breaking or picking apart old ropes. Families were only allowed minimal access to one another and in the early days were not even allowed to speak to each other outside these access times. The workhouse came to be seen as the ultimate degradation.

Some people only stayed in the workhouses briefly, when there was no other option, others spent their entire lives in the same workhouse. As medical care in the home was expensive, the poorest women would sometimes come to the workhouse hospital to give birth.

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U is for Unproven

Posted on April 24, 2025 by Geniejen

There are a couple of family stories I have been unable to prove or disprove, although based on the evidence after 40 years of research, I don’t think they are true. I’m happy to be disproved if some one can show me the evidence.

My father used to say we were descended from the Huguenot people who escaped to London in the 1680’s. I presumed this was because his father was a Foreman Silk dyer and a number of his ancestors worked in the Silk industry. Stupidly, I didn’t ask him why he thought that.

BUT today I found this reference to Macclesfield and the Huguenot silk weavers on Wikipedia. At the same time, there is nothing in the paper trail that I’ve researched so far that shows any links to London or Spitalfields.

The other story I didn’t hear till 20 years ago when an English cousin told me that our grandmother, Lily HEANEY BAMFORD was a gypsy and she was told by her in-laws that Lily used to sit on the front step. This story I’ve tried to prove but haven’t yet. In fact, I first stumble over the fact that Mary Anne’s grandparents were married in the Collegiate cathedral in Manchester in 1848 and I didn’t think gypsies were married in churches? But I can’t find either the HEANEY or BARLOW family before that so perhaps they were gypsies till then.

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T is for Tallow Chandler, my great grandfather, Peter (1849-1913) HEANEY and his family

Posted on April 23, 2025 by Geniejen

My great grandfather, Peter HEANEY was already working as a 9 year old when he was described as an Errand Boy in the family’s entry in the 1961 census for Macclesfield in Cheshire. His occupation often in official documents later was as a Tallow Chandler as was his father, John. A tallow chandler made candles of rendered fat of animals such as cows and sheep and sold the candles. I have no indication of whether or not the family made them at home or not.

The following gives you an overview of Peter and his descendants. He married twice and had 2 children with his first wife who passed away after birth of the second child and he had 4 children with his second wife, my G grandmother, Mary Ann STONEHEWER/ STONELY

Peter married his first wife, Ellen COOPS in 1875 in Prestbury in Macclesfield and their first child, a boy died 2 days after his birth (they didn’t name him). Their second child, Annie was born in 1877 but sadly, Ellen died a few days later. See C is for COOPS.

Below is the first official record I have found of Peter’s first daughter, Annie when she was living with her grandparents whose own youngest child, Eliza was of a similar age in 1881.

Peter remarried in 1880 to my great grandmother, Mary Ann STONEHEWER (this name has the most amazing range of spelling variations) in 188O again in Prestbury. See I is for Isaac HARROP and the STONEHEWER family.

This is Peter and Mary Ann’s marriage certificate. Here her surname is spelt STONELEY. She couldn’t write but Peter could, which I find interesting as he was working at the early age of 9 as an errand boy.

They had 3 sons and 1 daughter and I’m descended from the daughter, Lily. At least 2 of the children were born in the Macclesfield Workhouse which indicates the level of poverty they experienced.

Their first son, John Thomas was born in Nixon’s Yard in Macclesfield in October 1880. Peter was the informant on this certificate. But by the time, the 1881 census was collected Mary Ann was living with her father and sisters; where was Peter? His daughter Annie was with her HEANEY grandparents.

I have written at length about the family’s significant experience with the Macclesfield Workhouse in O is for Oakum and the HEANEY family in the Macclesfield Workhouse.

I eventually found Peter in Knutsford Prison in Cheshire in the 1881 census – all the data matches his details and he’s not in Macclesfield with the family. So far, I haven’t found what he was imprisoned for. He must have been released soon after this as Mary Anne gave birth to my grandmother, Lily in May 1882 so he must have been around 9 months before! Presumably, he had a short sentence for something minor, well, I hope it was minor. Also he was the informant on his father’s death certificate when he died in Oct. 1882 so he was back in Macclesfield by then.

A photo of the yard at Knutsford Prison from a great article in the Norwich Guardian (1st Jan 2023)

My grandmother, Lily (1882-1927) HEANEY was born in May 1882 in the Macclesfield Workhouse, she was the 2nd child of this marriage. Mary Ann’s parents and Peter’s parents and some of their siblings were still living in Macclesfield but obviously weren’t in a position to have Mary Ann and her now 2 children live with them

Below is one of the few photograph’s of my grandmother, Lily (1882-1926) HEANEY BAMFORD probably on her wedding day in 1909. She is so beautiful. I don’t know who the older woman was but I assume it was her mother, Mary Anne HEANEY or Sam’s mother, Clarissa BAMFORD. To my eyes, she looks a lot like the BAMFORD side but I can’t find Clarissa in the later 1911 census whereas Lily’s mother was living with Sam and Lily and my dad in that one,

I love the detailed work on their dresses, I do wonder if they are silk as they look shiny and grandad, Lily’s husband was a Silk dyer. Some one was also an amazing seamstress, Lily’s bodice is very complicated and detailed as is the other dress. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see these dresses in colour.

There is a colour photo in a cousin’s home in England which is absolutely stunning but it’s glass reflected all the windows in the room so I haven’t got a decent photo (see below). I’m told that after my grandmother died in 1926 that the photo remained in the front hall of Sam’s house even after his next 2 marriages.

The original sepia photo shows the details of her dress, cape and bonnet more clearly but the colour photo enables us to see that her outfit was a dark blue.

I wondered if Lily was wearing her Salvation Army uniform in this photo. But after I checked out the Salvation Army’s International Heritage Centre blog and read their interesting post about the history of the Salvation Army uniforms; I realised that her dress was too ornate for the Salvos uniform. I found more information on the organisation of the Salvation army here and well down the page is a video showing the changes in the uniform from 1880’s thru to modern times.

My grandmother, Mary Ann had 2 more sons, Thomas was also born in the Macclesfield Workhouse on 18 June 1884.

In 1911, Thomas was living with his brother in law, his sister, Lily, my dad (now I year old) and his mother. See further down.

Dad said this was Uncle Tom HEANEY in his St John Ambulance uniform, the same organisation my grandfather was involved in. See W is for World War One and Two.

Dad said this was his Uncle Tom HEANEY and his wife, Gertrude ROWSON at Blackpool. I think this might be in the 1920’s.

This is Thomas’ entry in the 1921 English census with his wife and daughter. He was working repairing locomotives with Grand Central Railway company while they still lived in Macclesfield. I assume he took the train to Gorton, Manchester every day.

Another undated photo of Tom HEANEY and his wife, Gertrude, perhaps 1930’s? Gosh, I can see my father in his face, something I hadn’t noticed before.

By 1939, Thomas was working as an Iron Foundry chair dresser for London North Eastern Railway who had taken over the previous company. There were living in Coare St., Macclesfield.

Their daughter, Gladys married Reginald LEAH in 1939 and she was working in as an Assistant in a Silk warehouse while living at 65 Cross st.

This is Uncle Tom HEANEY in the 1940’s.

I know Mary Ann’s last child, Frederick was born about 1888 but I’ve not been able to find his birth registration – perhaps with 4 children under 6 years, working and with intermittent support from her husband, neither of them registered his birth. I’ve just realised that I haven’t seen a census between 1881, the year after they married and 1913 when Peter died, where they were actually living together!

This 1891 census record shows Fred listed as being 3 years old so he was born about 1888. Mary Ann was working as a Silk Winder with 3 children under 9 years. Again, there is no husband although she describes herself as married. Mary Ann’s eldest son is not with her and the other 3 children but living with another family; perhaps he was adopted by them, see Z is for John Thomas HEANEY which i will post on 30th April.

In 1901, Mary Ann has still managed to keep her family together apart from her eldest son, John Thomas and all four of them from 13 year old Fred to 40 year old Mary Ann were working in the silk mills.

By 1911, Fred was now 23 and working as a Wire Trimmer in a Silk Mill, he was boarding with widower, Andrew HACKNEY, a grave digger. What a job that would have been in winter in Macclesfield.

By the 1911 census, my grandparents are married and have their first child, Laurence, my father. But interestingly, Lily’s mother, Mary Anne and her brother, Thomas are living with them too. Mary Anne is still working as a Silk winder while Thomas is 24 and a labourer.

By the 1921 census, Frederick has been married for a few years to Alice HASSALL (they married in 1916) and they had a daughter, Alice who was 4 years old. The following year they would have a son, Frederick J. HEANEY. Frederick was working as a Cotton Dyer, that’s interesting as his brother in law, my grandfather Sam was working as a Silk dyer.

Fred isn’t recorded in the 1939 Register as he died only a few years after his sister, Lily in 1930.

Peter was the eldest of 10 children and I’ve had limited contact with other descendants of the HEANEY children. An amazing cousin descended from his youngest sister found me in 2004 and we have enjoyed a wonderful friendship since. We live in vastly different parts of the world but have spent time with each other twice since 2004. She has authored 3 books about her family history some of which I share.

Thru DNA I’ve been contacted by the descendant of one of Peter’s brothers which has been useful.

For more about the extended HEANEY family, I invite you to read H is for the HEANEY family from Manchester and Macclesfield.

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S is for the Salvation Army and the BAMFORD family

Posted on April 22, 2025 by Geniejen

Active participation in the Macclesfield Salvation Army Corps was an important part of my father’s childhood. His father, Sam BAMFORD joined in about 1907 and all the children were expected to participate in services, bands (boys and men) and songsters (girls and women).

My father, Laurence BAMFORD but known in Australia as Larry emigrated to Australia as a teenager in 1927 with the Salvation Army Lads. You may be familiar with the more common scheme called the Big Brother movement. Both were tasked with bringing young people who may or may not have been orphans to work in Australia. Later, many were found not to be orphans and their families hadn’t given permission for them to migrate. The Salvation Army was specifically bringing out young men to be agricultural labourers.

Dad was not an orphan nor was he on the streets; he had a family, a home and had been working since he was 14 years old. But his mother had died of breast cancer the year before and I believe he clashed with his father, I know dad was very strong willed and always thought he was right and stories I’ve heard indicate my grandfather might have been the same. So Dad decided to leave England for a new life in Australia. He never mentioned ‘going home” – not that he could afford it and worked hard so that when I came along a couple of decades later, he spoke without his Macclesfield accent. In fact, he was very strict about speaking well. He also believed you looked forward and never looked back.

I wrote about his emigration in E is for Emigration earlier this month.

Back in 2020, I wrote in detail about my grandfather and his time in the Salvation Army.

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R is for the RSL – Larry BAMFORD in Warrnambool

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Geniejen

For this post, I thought I would write about my father’s involvement with the Warrnambool RSL in the years after WW2. Dad enlisted in Nov 1939 in Brisbane in the RAAF, Marine section and in the early 40’s was posted to Pt Cook in the now outer suburbs of Melbourne. I presume it was out in the country in those days. I don’t know how he and Mum met but I imagine it was probably thru friends or at a dance as dances were the main way for young people to meet.

They married in Melbourne in June 1944 and a few months later, he and 5 other RAAF personnel were sent on a small boat to sail from Melbourne up the East coast ending up 11 months months later in Papua. It was another few months before he was brought back to Melbourne and another few months after that till he was demobbed.

Map of Victoria

By 1946 or ’47, he had found work at Leahy Electrical in Warrnambool and so Mum and Dad left Melbourne to start their life together. Mum and Dad attended Warrnambool’s Centenary ball in March 1947 so they must have been there a while for them to have decided to attend.

I was born in 1948 and from my birth certificate, it looks like they were living in a beach shack in Warrnambool at that stage. They bought land in Monash Ave, which was a new estate and built a house at 8 Monash Ave. thru a War Service Loan. Judging from my baby photos, we must have moved into a new house on the edge of Warrnambool in late 1948.

Dad was involved with the local RSL till we left for Melbourne in 1956. Surprisingly, I don’t have any memory of going to the War Memorial. However, I do have a booklet produced for the commemoration of the WW2 addition to the War Memorial which was engraved with the names of the Warrnambool men and women who lost their lives in WW2. On the back is a list of the committee and Dad is listed as Secretary.

1954 Envelope addressed to Dad as Secretary
1954 Letter addressed to Dad as Secretary

We had the opportunity to attend the Warrnambool RSL’s Dawn service in 2005. The War Memorial is on a hill a couple of streets up from the main street and on the other side, the land drops away sharply into the beautiful lake area.

The exservice men and women must have assembled down in the main street and they marched up the hill and emerged thru the gloom onto the road where the War Memorial was. It was a very special magical experience as I thought that they were doing what my father must have done for the 9 years we were in Warrnambool.

I regard myself as a “joiner” which is something I’ve done since high school days but I don’t know where this involvement comes from. For Dad being an active member of the RSL was not typical of him for the rest of his life as, I don’t recall him joining anything else ever. The only thing I remember is him participating in working bees at my secondary school (there was no such thing as a groundsman or handyman in those days).

On a visit to Warrnambool before the pandemic, I visited both Warrnambool Historical society (what an amazing research centre they have) and the RSL to handover original materials from my family for their collections. Contact the Warrnambool Heritage centre to visit their research centre.

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R is for Rocester in Staffordshire – the birthplace of the BAMFORD family

Posted on April 21, 2025 by Geniejen

Rocester (and no, it’s not Rochester) is a small village in Staffordshire, near the town of Uttoxeter and on the border with Derbyshire. My G G grandfather, James (1806-1895) BAMFORD was baptised in Rocester in 1806, he was the second to last child of Charles and Sarah BAMFORD. As James and his brothers, John and Charles all died in Macclesfield, I think we can safely presume they moved from Rocester for the work available in Macclesfield’s cotton and silk mills.

I don’t know when James moved to Macclesfield exactly but it was sometime between the birth of his youngest brother, Charles in 1808 in Rocester and 1832 when he married Jane HARRISON in Prestbury in Macclesfield. James was the 5th generation of BAMFORD’s to be recorded in the parish registers of Rocester parish of St Michael’s.

This is St Michael’s Church in Rocester where the BAMFORD family were baptised, married and buried from at least 1680’s. The tower is believed to have been built in the 1200’s.

Today the car trip between Rocester and Macclesfield takes 50 min, in the early 1800’s, I presume they walked or had a horse and cart.

Rocester was listed in the Domesday book from 1086 under both Staffordshire and Derbyshire counties just to confuse this researcher.

A number of researchers have traced our Macclesfield BAMFORD family back to Rocester. We had the pleasure of spending an hour there some years ago now. Even though it was a weekday, we were able to go inside the church and what an amazing experience it was to be in the church were my BAMFORD family baptised their children and were married. We didn’t find any graves with headstones in the churchyard but I rarely do, so that was no surprise.

East Staffordshire county Borough council commissioned a report “Rocester
Conservation Area Appraisal” in 2015 and it has much wonderful information about the history of the village.

The population of Rocester was recorded as 899 in 1801, which probably reflects the influence of the cotton mill on attracting workers from beyond the settlement itself.

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Q is for Quarry Bank Mill

Posted on April 19, 2025 by Geniejen

How exciting, WordPress tells me that this is my 200th post! How exciting, when I started I never would have imagined I would achieve that.

On our 2 visits to my father’s birthplace in Macclesfield, we were fortunate to go with family and friends to Quarry Bank Mill in the village of Styal, not far from Macclesfield. It is a National Trust property and one of a few working cotton mills in England. It has been preserved by volunteers which must have been a huge amount of work. It’s definitely worth a visit if you have ancestors like mine who largely worked in the silk and cotton industries. I wrote about the jobs our ancestors did in C is for the Cotton industry.

Quarry Bank Mill at Styal near Macclesfield

The mill was operated by the GREG family and was supposed to be one of the more enlightened mills as the children received some education but by today’s standards it was still a very harsh place to work with long days and every day except Sunday.

Here are some of the photos I took during our visits. Sadly, I didn’t take the time to save the name of the machines in the photos.

When ever I’ve been turning the pages in volumes like this in Public Record Offices, I’ve often wondered how they stored them. I love that it is a decorative piece and not just functional.

I’m blown away that somebody invented such a complicated machine like this.
Volunteer demonstrating the stages of cotton spinning and weaving (J. Gay)
These were reconstructions of the cottages that GREGS built for their workers

This is the restored water wheel which drew water from the River Bollin to power the mill

I was sure that I’d read that children didn’t get paid but this panel at Quarry Bank Mill says they did. But it also says that apprentice children didn’t get paid. At this stage, I don’t know the difference between those groups of children. I don’t envy the person who had to put the exact coins in each wage cup or the person who had to calculate the exact coinage needed from the bank.

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P is for PLANT

Posted on April 18, 2025 by Geniejen

This post isn’t about the garden variety but it’s the surname, PLANT. My GG aunt, Harriet (1836- ) BAMFORD acquired this surname when she married John (1836- ) PLANT in St. Peter’s, Prestbury in Macclesfield . Harriet was the eldest sister of my G G grandfather, James (1848-1913?) BAMFORD.

Here are the new PLANT family in Saville St (where from the 1920’s, my grandfather, Sam and his family lived for many years). The particularly interesting info here is that Harriet has her 77 year old grandmother, Alice (1784-1876) HARRISON who is my GGG grandmother living with her and she gave her birthplace as Big Budworth which is also in Cheshire. See A is for Astbury, Lawton and Big Budworth!!!!!!

Harriet and John had 2 daughters and 2 sons, quite a small family for that time.

Harriet and John PLANT’s children

EPSON MFP image
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O is for Oakum and Macclesfield Workhouse

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Geniejen

This started out as a post about my grandfather, Sam BAMFORD and his family’s time in the Macclesfield Workhouse but as I’ve worked on it I realised that the research I had collected over the years was mostly about my HEANEY family.

So I’ve changed direction and this one will be about my grandmother, Lily who was born in Macclesfield Workhouse in 1882 and the many members of her family who spent time in that workhouse in the latter part of the 19th century.

I found this 2006 article a family member had sent me about the Macclesfield Workhouse interesting.

I found I have 40 images of the Workhouse Admission and Discharge books from 2013 which I won’t bore you with here (I’ll just show you three). But if you are also a HEANEY descendant and would like a copy, I’m happy to provide that to you. My email address is geniejen3@gmail.com.

This page shows my G grandmother, Mary Ann STONEHEWER HEANEY being admitted to the Macclesfield Workhouse and a day later, she had given birth and they recorded my grandmother, Lily. How desperate Mary Ann must have been to have to have go to the workhouse to deliver. Her 3 sisters were married and all lived in Macclesfield but no one must have been able to support her during the birth. I wonder if she even had anywhere to live. I’ve just recalled that in the 1881 census she and her first son, John Thomas were staying with her father, Thomas STONEHEWER and some of her unmarried sisters. So perhaps in 1982, she still didn’t have her own home. Again where was her husband?

Here is a page from the Admission and Discharge Register for the Macclesfield Workhouse later in Nov 1882, an example of when my great grandmother, Mary Ann STONEHEWER/STONIER HEANEY and my grandmother, Lily were admitted to Macclesfield Workhouse on Nov 13th 1882 when Lily was only 6 months old.

A day later, Mary Ann’s grandmother (my GGG grandmother) Martha STONIER, who was born in 1811 was also admitted. I just noticed a particularly sad entry that day which was for a 5 year old “A Boy Unknown” – he was 5 and presumably didn’t know his name.

The page below shows that Mary Ann must have requested a Discharge 2 days later for herself and daughter, Lily as her discharge is listed as “At Own request”. I wonder where her first child, John Thomas was? Mary Ann must have been desperate to have to spend 2 days there. I have long suspected that my G grandfather, Peter HEANEY was either not able to work or in prison or was away working – I imagine a tallow chandler would travel far and wide. A English friend suggested that perhaps he was supplying candles to the navvies digging the canals around Manchester.

While I was looking thru my BAMFORD/HEANEY paper folders to see what I had collected about the families’ interactions with the Macclesfield Workhouse earlier today and found 2 spreadsheets I made back in 2013 which I had forgotten about.

The first one is in chronological order for my HEANEY family (see H is for HEANEY from Manchester and Macclesfield and T is for Tallow Chandler and Peter HEANEY and family which will be published in a few days. It shows when members of the HEANEY family were admitted and discharged many, many times between 1882 and 1892.

I have sorted the spreadsheet so I can see how often and when various members of the family went to the workhouse for support.

Here are the individuals and their relationship to my family.

Annie is the daughter from my G grandfather, Peter HEANEY’s first marriage. Annie’s mother died a few days after her birth. See C is for COOPS.

Eliza was the 10th and last child of John and Sarah HEANEY, my GG grandparents.

John jnr was the 4th child born to John and Sarah. Later census records showed he was deaf.

John Thomas was the first child of my G grandparents, Peter and Mary Anne HEANEY and was later brought up by another family.

Lily was my grandmother and married Sam BAMFORD in 1909.

Martha STONIER was my GGG grand mother and grandmother of Mary Anne STONEHEWER HEANEY, my G grandmother.

Sarah jnr was the 9th child of John and Sarah snr HEANEY and in 1892, married John BROWN who was about 36 years older than her, presumably she married for security. I have seen a letter written in the 1920’s to a sister overseas and she seems happy and contented with her life.

Sarah snr was born about 1825 in Manchester, her maiden name was BARLOW when she married my GG grandfather, John snr HEANEY

Thomas HEANEY was the 3rd child born to Mary Anne and Peter HEANEY and like his sister, Lily was born in the Macclesfield Workhouse.

As I finish this list, I realised that Peter HEANEY isn’t on the list. I would have thought he would have been admitted with his family when Mary Ann was admitted or perhaps my theory is right and he is not in Macclesfield for some reason as I suggested earlier.

For more detailed information about workhouses in the UK, I recommend Peter Hickinbotham’s excellent website, The Workhouse: the story of an institution.

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N is for Nurses (Lily, Richard and Richard jnr.)

Posted on April 16, 2025 by Geniejen

The JANES’ family were all nurses. Below you can see Auntie Lily’s graduation after 3 years of study (nurses were trained on the job at that time) at the Hope Hospital in Salford, Manchester.

There is a particularly good history of the Hope Hospital and Nurses Home here. The hospital is now the Salford Royal Hospital.

Medicine and medical science

This photo was sent to my father in Australia with Grandad’s writing on the back. West Park was the name of the hospital in Macclesfield from 1930.

This is the record of Auntie Lily’s husband, Uncle Richard’s enrolment as an Assistant Nurse in 1951, it looks like he worked at a Cheshire Sanatorium while gaining his experience. I wonder if that is where he and Auntie Lily met as she was in a sanitarium in 1947/6 with TB – see photo on J is for JANES.

I understand that their son was also a nurse.

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M is for the McCORMICK family

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Geniejen

For some decades, my G Aunt Ginny/Jinny (I have not seen her name in writing so have no idea how it was spelt) was a total mystery as I don’t recall my father mentioning her at all during my childhood but English cousins I met in later years mentioned her.

For some reason for years, I fixated on the Ginny part of her name and was looking for a Virginia BAMFORD. I knew from the 1881 census that my grandfather, Sam BAMFORD had a sister, Sarah Jane (1877-1965) but I couldn’t find anything of her after a couple of census documents and it never occurred to me that Aunt Ginny and Sarah Jane were the same person.

Finally, on my first trip to England whilst having a conversation with a cousin I’d not met before, I asked her about this missing aunt. She didn’t know her full name either but rang her elderly mother and down the line came 2 words, “Sarah Jane” and everything fell into place. I wished I’d thought that Ginny might be a version of her middle name, Jane. She still remains a partial mystery to me as she is missing from a couple of census’ and I can’t find a marriage for her to match her surname in the 1921 census and her 1965 death certificate. ‘

In 1881, Sarah Jane was just 4 years old and the only girl with 4 brothers born to James and Clarissa (also known as Clara Esther).

By 1991, she was 14 and working as a Silk Piecer and still living with all her family.

In 1901, only her little brother and my grandfather, Sam/Samuel was living with their parents.

I can’t find her in the 1901 and 1911 census’ – maybe it’s been incorrectly transcribed and it just hasn’t appeared in my searches. Or perhaps she had been admitted to the Infirmary or Workhouse or Lunatic Asylum. I’ve tried looking for her in other parts of England but no luck so far.

When my Great aunt Ginny (Sarah Jane (1876-1965) BAMFORD died in 1965 in Macclesfield, her surname on the death certificate was McCORMICK. Her brother and my grandfather, Sam was the informant. So I’m comfortable in concluding that this was Aunt Ginny. Plus her address is the same as it was in 1921, 1922 and 1939.

An uncle said that she was a Victorian aunt and something of a tartar and wasn’t spoken much of at home despite that they all lived in Macclesfield. My English cousins remembered Aunt Ginny as being confined to the front room and ground floor of her house in her last years. One remembered calling in on his way to work to check on her and another remembers going out the back of the house to bring in wood for her fire. Her address on the death certificate was 16 Lower Exchange St, Macclesfield.

We also have a photo from 1954 of Aunt Ginny with an aunt of mine who was in Macclesfield for a family wedding.

I cannot find a marriage for her with either surname, BAMFORD or HILTON to a William McCORMICK.

In the 1920 electoral roll, William and his first wife, Mary are living at the 16 Lower Exchange house.

I then looked for a William McCORMICK in Macclesfield in the 1921 census and he was living at the same address with a Jane HILTON as his housekeeper who said she was single and had been born in Charlotte St. in Macclesfield. On Sarah Jane’s birth certificate below the census, it tells us she was born in Charlotte St.

I presume Mary must have died between those 2 records and I have found a death recorded on the Cheshire BMD for a Mary McCORMICK in 1920. I would need to buy the death certificate to prove that is the right person but I’ve been having trouble for several months buying certificates from the GRO and their website has only accepted my credit cards on 2 occasions despite several attempts.

Sarah Jane’s birth certificate from 1876 showing that she was born at 5 Charlotte St. So I’m comfortable in concluding that Sarah J BAMFORD and Jane HILTON and Sarah McCORMICK are the one and the same person. I have no idea why she changed her name to HILTON.

I’ve looked for a marriage for a BAMFORD and HILTON in Cheshire but can’t find one. I can’t imagine my very religious grandfather approving of his sister not marrying.

I recently decided to look into her spouse/partner, William (1864-1932) McCORMICK who has proved to be a very interesting character. Tracing back thru the census records, I’ve found that he was born in Irish Town, Dublin in about 1875 to Patrick McCORMICK and Rose QUINN. Rose and the children first appear in an English census in 1881 living in Macclesfield. Rose was widowed and bringing up 5 children with William being the eldest. Georgina aged 4 years was the first of the family to be born in Macclesfield in approx. 1877 with the first 3 being born in Irish Town, Dublin. The family must have migrated between the births of Elizabeth born in about 1875 in Dublin and Georgina born in about 1877 in Macclesfield. Rose, William’s mother indicated that she was a widow so perhaps her husband died or left her after she conceived Rose who was 1 year old in 1881.

I was interested to find out why Dublin had an Irish Town considering it was Ireland after all and I found this very interesting entry on Wikipedia.

Irishtown grew outside of Dublin, about 2 km east of the medieval city walls (see also Ringsend). Dublin was originally a Viking city and after 1171, when an Anglo-Norman army seized it, Dublin became the centre of English rule in Ireland. The native Gaelic Irish were therefore viewed as an alien force in the city, and suspicion of them was deepened by continual raids on Dublin and its environs by the O’Byrne and O’Toole clans from the nearby Wicklow Mountains. By the 15th century, Gaelic migration to the city had made the English authorities fearful that the English language and culture would become a minority there. As a result, the Irish inhabitants of Dublin were expelled from the city proper in about 1454, in line with the Statutes of Kilkenny. The Irish population were only allowed to trade inside the city limits by daylight. At the end of the day’s trading, they would leave and set up camp in what was to become known as “the Irishtown”.

Cheshire BMD says he married Polly O’BRIEN in 1891.

William married Polly O’Brien in 1891 and it looks from this 1891 census record that she brought a daughter to the marriage, Olive O’BRIEN. Polly is a variant of Mary so it looks like that’s what she used after her marriage in each census record from then.

By the time of the 1901 census, William and Mary had added 3 children to their family: Rose, Willie (William) and Agnes.

In the 1911 census, Olive is not with the family (perhaps married as she would have been 24 by now) and the children’s names are more explicit. Willie is now William, Rose is now Rose Hannah, Agnes is now Mary Agnes and they have added Kathleen to the family in the 10 years since the last census. Interestingly they are now living in Charlotte St., where my G Auntie Jinny was born.

When WW1 broke out, their eldest and only son, William enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment. This is his medal card.

Sadly, a search of the BNA (I was actually searching for his father) reveals he died in France in July 1917. Gosh, that made me so sad, he was so very young. Here is his obituary in the Macclesfield newspaper.

To my surprise, William’s obituary stated that his 55 year old father had also enlisted. I’m surprised the army would have accepted a man of his age. I believe that this is his WW1 Medal card.

William died in 1932 and his funeral was written up in lots of detail including the names of the people who attended which is a great help to this genealogist. I’m somewhat surprised that such detail was covered for a builder’s labourer in a town of about 35,000 people.

In 1939, G Aunt Jinny was still living in 16 Lower Exchange St. and remained there till her death in 1965.

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L is for County Lunatic Asylum (Macclesfield) and James BAMFORD

Posted on April 14, 2025 by Geniejen

My great grandfather, James (1848-1913) BAMFORD died in the County Lunatic Asylum in Macclesfield, Cheshire on 24 March 1913. I know this is the right death certificate as his eldest son, Alfred was the informant.

This image is of one section of the asylum from Wikipedia.

James’ cause of death was given as Cardiac Disease (Mitral) of several years and a Carbuncle of the Neck for 14 days. I don’t know why he was in the Lunatic Asylum as those 2 causes of death sound like normal causes of death but I realise he might have died of natural causes but already been an inpatient of the Lunatic Asylum. In fact, when the English census was carried 2 years before in 1911 some 2 years before I was unable to locate him or my great grandmother.

This is his death certificate from 1913.

While researching Clarissa in 1911, I found this image of one page of the 1911 census record for the Macclesfield Workhouse or Infirmary which lists a Sarah BAMFORD not Clara BAMFORD. But everything in the data matches my great grandmother, Clarissa/Clara BAMFORD so I wonder if the first name was wrongly transcribed onto the census form?

There is a story among some of the descendants of James’ sons that some one had a drinking problem and that issue split up the family. Certainly, in my family, there was talk that the reason that Granddad joined the Salvation Army early in his married life was because of their attitude to alcohol. He also told other family in the UK that after being in the workhouse as a child picking oakum that he and my grandmother, Lily (born in the workhouse) were determined to work hard and support their family.

I found this website Parkside – County Asylums really useful; the County Lunatic Asylum was later renamed Parkside.

Certainly I know that James, Clarissa and Sam had spent some time in the Macclesfield Workhouse in the 1890’s and I will write about that in O is for Oakham and Macclesfield Workhouse. So they may well still have had to enter the Workhouse or Infirmary as they aged.

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K is for Kaleidoscope of Churches

Posted on April 13, 2025 by Geniejen

This is St Michael’s parish church in Rocester, Staffordshire where the earliest records of my BAMFORD ancestors were written into the parish registers. Like all genealogists, there is a very special feeling experienced when you visit a place that was used by your ancestors and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to spend time in this church where my family worshipped centuries ago.

The top red box shows the 1698 baptism of Elizabeth, daughter of Jacobi and Susanna BAMFORD and sister of my GGGGG grandfather, John (b. about 1667) BAMFORD in St Michael’s Parish church in Rocester. Sadly, the second red box records her burial. Jacob and Susanna were my GGGGGG grandparents. The records are in Latin but once you have the Latin words for baptism, marriage and burial, son and daughter, it’s easier. Obviously the first names were latinised too. On our visit several years ago, we didn’t find any family graves in quite a large churchyard which happens most of the time with both our families as they were all poor people.

I’ve previously written about Rocester in a post called Rocester – The Birthplace of the BAMFORD family

This is the Manchester Parochial chapel and Cathedral where my GG grandparents, John HEANEY and Sarah HEANEY were married in 1848. See H is for HEANEY for more details of this family.

This is St James Parish church in BONSALL where my WORTHY family are recorded in the parish registers. I wrote about this family in a later post W is for the WORTHY family of Bonsall, Derbyshire.

I found the 2 photos below on this wonderful site https://andrewsgen.com/photo/derbyshire/bonsall_church.htm

Below is St Mary’s Parish church in Cromford in Derbyshire where my PENNISTONE family worshipped for years before they moved to Bollington, presumably for work.

I found this picture on this site – https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/13300/

And these from the current parish web page

https://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2020/02/inside-st-marys-cromford.html

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J is for JANES

Posted on April 12, 2025 by Geniejen

This post is about my Auntie Lily and her husband, Richard JANES. She was my Dad’s little sister and would have only been 6 years old when he migrated to Australia. They met only once more in their lives on her visit to Australia in the late 1970’s.

This is the first census that my Auntie Lily appears in when she was just 2 months old in 1921. Dad was 11 years old.

This is another of the photos that Dad brought with him to Australia in 1927; it’s of his little sister, Lily and she looks about 4 years old here. My cousin has been able to tell me that this photo was taken in South Park in Macclesfield..

This is a copy of a photo my cousin showed me on my first visit to Macclesfield. It is Auntie Lily in the 1920’s when she was a Sunbeam in the Macclesfield Salvation Army group. Looks similar to a Girl Guide or Brownie group and looks like it’s Easter time.

This one is taken in the early to mid. 1930’s. This is Lily with her younger siblings on their dad’s bike and side car in front of the family home in Saville St. I believe that this was the only family vehicle as there are a few photos of the family on the bike and in the sidecar. I do have a later photo of them proudly standing around a car which Sam must have bought.

1937 – This is the wedding of my dad’s brother in Macclesfield. Auntie Lily is the bridesmaid on the left, with my grandfather, Sam on her right and her stepmother, Winifred is in front of grandad sitting on the chair.

In the 1939 Register for one of Macclesfield’s hospitals, Lily was listed as a Probationary Nurse.

In 1946, Lily was treated for TB at the Sanatorium at Nab Top near Marple. This was another of the photos that Grandad sent to Dad in Australia, by this time my parents were married.

I like the way that information has been added in different handwriting over time. The first is probably grandad’s or my grandmother and certainly the later writing is mine presumably after I had asked my father about this photo.

In my father’s possessions were about 6 photos sent to him in Australia after the family had gone on a group trip in 1947 after the end of WW2. This photo is of my grandparents and 3 of their children in Belfast. and the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. I checked my own photos of Belfast as I felt those steps looked like the steps of the parliament at Stormont and it was! Grandad has kindly marked Auntie Lily, her step sister and her and my Dad’s step- mother.

This was received by Dad in Australia and I think that it was Grandad’s way of keeping his eldest son as part of the family. At this stage, Dad had been in Australia for 20 years so may not have even met his stepmother before he left Macclesfield in 1927. Auntie Lily was only 6 years old when he left so she wouldn’t have known him very well and he certainly hadn’t met his half siblings as they were born after he emigrated.

In 1950, Auntie Lily married Richard JANES who had fled to England asa refugee in the 1940’s from Estonia. Both of the couple were nurses, I’ve been told that Auntie Lily trained at West Park Hospital in Macclesfield, I don’t know if Richard was trained in Lativia or in England.

Standing on the right side of the photo is my grandfather, Sam (1888-1977) BAMFORD and his 3rd wife, Winifred BROUGH BAMFORD. A couple of my cousins were flower girls.

Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded, and occupied, first by the Soviet Union in 1940, then Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR).

From this paragraph on Wikipedia, it’s obvious why Uncle Richard was keen to escape to England. The Soviet occupation lasted from 1944-1991.

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I is for Isaac HARROP and the STONEHEWER family

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Geniejen

My great grandmother, Mary Anne (1860-1915) STONEHEWER HEANEY’s parents were Thomas (1829-1883) STONEHEWER and Sarah (1831-1879) HARROP of Macclesfield, Cheshire. Sarah was the daughter of Isaac Bancroft HARROP and Hannah FOWLER.

Of all the surnames in my family tree, STONEHEWER has the most variations in spelling. According to The Stonehewer to Stanier One Name Society page, STONEHEWER can also be spelled as STONHEWER, STONIER, STONYER, STANIER, STANIAR, STANYER and STANWAY.

On Ancestry, I have matches with people who are also descendants of Isaac HARROP thru his son, Joseph who died in Utah so I presume that Joseph and family migrated to the US at some stage after the 1851 census as he was still in Macclesfield at that time.

This is the 1850 marriage certificate of Mary Anne’s parents in St Peter’s, Prestbury, Macclesfield.

As usual, it also names their fathers and their occupations. Sarah’s father, Isaac HARROP was described as a Chemist and is one of the few of my ancestors who didn’t work in the silk or cotton industries. It wasn’t till my grandfather’s generation that the men found work in different fields except for Grandad as he was the Foreman Dyer for Abraham’s Silk Dye works in Macclesfield.

This is the 1822 Marriage Register entry for St Peter’s, Prestbury which shows the first marriage of Sarah’s parents, Isaac Bancroft HARROP and Hannah FOWLER.

All 4 of Isaac and Hannah’s children were baptised at St Peter’s, Prestbury on the same day in 1837. I wonder why they were all done at the same time? Not that is unusual as I’ve seen it before. As that year is 1837 when English law changed and required Civil Registration of Births, perhaps they thought they’d baptise the children as well.

And look carefully at the handy info, the Vicar has annotated the entries with their actual birthdates! Fantastic find for a genealogist particularly when these births occurred before Civil Registration. Note that Isaac said he was a Weaver in 1837 and in 1850.

By the time of the 1841 census, Isaac and Sarah must have separated as they were listed as living or boarding with different partners. Hannah is with John RUSHTON who is only 20 and she was 45, so perhaps she was his housekeeper. My great grandmother, Mary Ann was now 15 years old and Sarah and the 4 children were working in the silk industry.

While Isaac was living with Jane? WILDING who was 25 years and a Silk Piecer while Isaac said he was 35 years old and worked as a Chemist.

Hannah must have died before 1843 as Isaac remarried that year, this time to a widow, Ann NIXON OWEN (unless he was a bigamist). There were a couple of Hannah HARROP’s who died in 1843 and 1844 in Macclesfield but I’ve selected the 1843 one because she needed to be dead before he remarried and the age 52 years is the best match to the age she gave in 1841.

This is their 1843 Marriage certificate from St. George’s St. CE, Church in Macclesfield. I’ve not seen such a fancy signature from one of my ancestors before so I imagine he must have had a fair amount of education.

Isaac and Ann had a daughter, Ann Louisa born in 1845.

In 1851, Isaac was living with his new wife, Ann in Mill Lane in Sutton, Macclesfield. He was 49 and said he was working as a Chemist Druggist and he was 49 years old while Ann was 40 years and they had a daughter, also called Ann who was 5 years old.

By the 1861, Isaac and his new family were living in Macclesfield and he was now 52 and now he said was a Silk Weaver. I wonder why he’s given up being a Chemist and a Druggist?

Isaac died in 1869 in Macclesfield and was buried at St. Peter’s Church in Macclesfield.

Here is Isaac’s descendant chart including my direct line who are marked by an asterix next to their first name.

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H is for the HOLEBROOK family

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Geniejen

Two of my grandfather, Sam BAMFORD’s brothers married sisters from the same HOLEBROOK family. They were Elizabeth and Ann and their parents were William (1846-1890) and Mary Ann (1845-1911).

The HOLEBROOK’s were a family of 5 daughters as listed below on the 1881 English census for Macclesfield. Their father, William was working as a Plasterer, they were all born in Macclesfield and they ranged in age from 10 years down to a few months old.

Sadly, by the time, the next census was recorded in 1891, William had died and therefore, Mary Ann was widowed. It must have been such a tough time for them as there was no government support and you survived somehow or went into the workhouse which most people tried very hard to avoid.

The family’s entry in the 1891 census shows that Mary Ann was a widow and the 3 eldest girls aged from 13 – 20 years are working as Silk Piecers but the youngest 2 are not on the record. Have they died or are they in the workhouse or living with other family?

Sam’s eldest brother, Alfred (1870-1930) married Elizabeth Ann (1871-1955) HOLEBROOK on 1st Jan 1894 at St Peter’s Church in Prestbury in Macclesfield, Cheshire. He was living at 5 Saville St., in Macclesfield while she was living in 78 Windmill St. – both streets which future generations of BAMFORD’s would live in.

The 1891 census tells us Elizabeth was working as a Silk Piecer and in the 1911 census she was working as a Silk Winder. So she was a working woman after marriage as were many generations of BAMFORD women including myself.

This is the 1921 Census return for Alfred and Elizabeth and their 2 children, It was the first census to ask respondents to say what they did for work and the name and address of their employer which is a great piece of information for a genealogist. They had a daughter, Gladys (1897-1971) and a son (Horace Victor (1901-1990).

Gladys married Harry HOWARTH in 1923. So far, we haven’t found any children registered to Gladys and her husband, Harry (1897-1971) HOWARTH. In 1911 she was working as a Silk Embroiderer and in 1921, she was a Charge Hand in Smale and Son’s Silk factory in King St, Macclesfield.

In the 1939 Register, she and Harry were living in Stockport with her widowed mother, Elizabeth (Alf died in 1930.) Harry was now a Grocer.

Glady’s brother, Horace was born in 1901 and by 1921, was working for Hovis Bread Flour Mill in Macclesfield as a Coach Painter. He married Doris (1904-1967) MORRISON in 1930. They had 2 sons, Alfred (1931-2020) and Leslie (1939-2014).

Here is a photo of a HOVIS bread van, no wonder they needed painters. It’s such a beautiful design.

This is a photo an English cousin gave me of Alf (Alfred 1931-2020) and his aunt Gladys BAMFORD HOWARTH. Alf looks about 10 years so I’m going to date this around 1941 during WW2. Someone who knows their cars might be able to date it more accurately, if so, please email me at geniejen3@gmail.com.

John James BAMFORD and his family

Alfred’s younger brother and Sam’s elder brother, John James (1880-1938) BAMFORD married Elizabeth’s sister, Annie (1876- ) HOLEBROOK in 1900 in St Peter’s Church, Prestbury, Macclesfield. I’ve heard this great uncle of mine referred to by older family members as Uncle Jack.

All addresses I have found for him indicate that he lived in 3 main streets in Macclesfield, Saville St., Windmill st., and Bank St. I have traced him as working as a Compositor from 1901 – 1938 the year he died. In 1921 he was working at Heath Bros. Printers, St George’s St. Mill, Macclesfield.

I was told by my English family this was Great Uncle Jack BAMFORD, I’m guessing by the collar that this photo was taken in the 1920’s perhaps?

This is the 1921 census record for Jack and Annie BAMFORD and their 2 sons in Bank St., Macclesfield.

Annie, like her sister, Elizabeth worked from at least 1891 as a Silk Piecer and also worked as a Silk Winder in 1901, 1911, she was not working outside the home in 1921. Check 1939

They had 2 children, Norman and Gordon; Norman married Sarah LEONARD and they had 2 children. Gordon married Brenda CLEWES.

For more on the families of these 2 couples, check out my post on the Y is for my Granddad’s siblings and their families.

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H is for the HEANEY family from Manchester and Macclesfield

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Geniejen

My great grandfather, Peter (1849-1913) HEANEY was born in Manchester following his parents’ 1848 marriage in the Collegiate Cathedral in Manchester and he was the eldest of their 10 children. 

1848 The Marriage of John HEANEY and Sarah BARLOW in Manchester Cathedral

From this marriage certificate, we can see that John was a Chandler and that his father, Peter was a Mason while Sarah’s father, Richard BARLOW was a Carter. Of course, we can’t assume this is primary evidence as there was no need for identification in that time so they could have just said something to make themselves look good. In fact, I do wonder if it has been made up as I can’t find a trace of either John or Sarah or their family in the 1841 census some 7 years prior to their marriage or the baptisms of either or the deaths of their fathers. They should have been at home with their families in the 1841 census as both said they were born in Manchester.

I cannot find any info about these two prior to their marriage in 1848 – it’s like they just appeared in Manchester on that date even though in subsequent census they said they were both born in Manchester. Any help gratefully received!

I found the following information about the Manchester Cathedral on Wikipedia. Previously, I couldn’t understand why my poor ancestors would have been married in a cathedral but this explains why they were married there in 1848 probably with a bunch of other couples.

Until 1850, the Collegiate Church remained the parish church for the whole of Manchester (this is the ancient parish, including almost the whole area of the modern City of Manchester excepting Wythenshawe), an area which in 1821 had a population of 187,031.[12] Within this vast parish there were considerable numbers of chapels of ease and proprietary chapels for parochial worship – as well as other chapels for dissenters and Roman Catholics.

Nevertheless, the Wardens and fellows of the Collegiate church maintained their legal right to a fee of 3s. 6d. for all marriages conducted within their parish; so, unless a couple were able and willing to pay two sets of marriage fees, the only place in Manchester where a marriage might legally be contracted was the collegiate church.

In practice, this religious duty fell on the pastoral chaplain employed by the Warden and fellows; who from 1790 to 1821 was the eccentric figure of the Revd. Joshua ‘Jotty’ Brookes. In 1821 a total of 1,924 marriages were solemnized in the collegiate church; commonly in batches of a score or more. The couples to be married were most often desperately poor but Brookes was no respecter of status, so all were subjected to his ‘production line‘ methods. Commonly, the groom and friends would decamp to a nearby ale-house while the bride kept place in the queue; but if there was one groom too few when a group of couples were lined up in front of the altar, Brookes notoriously would countenance no delay, but would continue the marriage with any passer-by (or even one of the other grooms) as a proxy stand-in.

Brookes is commonly reckoned to have conducted more marriages, funerals and christenings than any English clergyman before or since.[12]

This is a snippet of Manchester in the mid 1800;s and I’ve highlighted both the Collegiate Chapel, Long Millgate and Miller Street.

Here are 2 images I snaffled some years ago without recording the source; if you know where they came from and want an acknowledgement, I’m happy to do that. The images are of Long Millgate which was the address John HEANEY gave as his home address. This street is adjacent to the Cathedral and the Victoria Station which leads me to wonder if the HEANEY’s went to their next place by train. Sarah gave her address as Miller St., which intersected with Long Millgate.

As is obvious from these undated pictures, this area around the Cathedral was dreadfully poor. In fact, Friedrich Engels’ in his book “The condition of the working class in England” which was first published in 1845 in Germany actually mentions Long Millgate

I may mention just here that the mills almost all adjoin the rivers or the different canals that ramify throughout the city, before I proceed at once to describe the labouring quarters. First of all, there is the Old commercial district and the Irk. Here the streets, even the better ones, are narrow and winding, like Todd Street, Long Millgate, Withy Grove and Shude Hill, the houses dirty, old, and tumble-down and the construction of the side streets utterly horrible. Going from the Old Church to Long Millgate, the stroller has at once a row of old-fashioned houses on the right, of which not one has kept its original level; thee are remnants of old pre-manufacturing Manchester, whose former inhabitants have removed with their descendants into better-built districts and have left the houses, where were not good enough for them to a working class population strongly mixed with Irish blood. Here one is in an almost undisguised working men’s quarter, for even the shops and beerhouses hardly take the trouble to exhibit a trifling degree of cleanliness. But all this is nothing in comparison with the courts and the lanes which lie behind, to which access can be gained only through covered passages, in which no two human beings can pass at the same time.

My copy of Engel’s work is a Penguin Classic edited by Victor Kiernan in 2005.

The court he refers to was a narrow alley which lead to a number of units all sharing access to the street via the alley; So there was very little to no fresh air in the small homes as they often backed onto another group behind them. I don’t know if it is still on display but I saw a recreation of one at Liverpool’s Museum some years ago which clearly demonstrated how poor the quality was and the lack of privacy for the families sharing each court. I know many of the HEANEY family lived in courts in Manchester and Macclesfield.

Below is a modern view of Long Millgate looking towards the Cathedral (Google Maps)

This is my great grandfather, Peter HEANEY’s birth certificate from 1849 when his father’s occupation was described as a Tallow Chandler. Sarah, his mother couldn’t sign her name so there in an X to indicate she was present but unable to write her name.

The birth certificates of the other 9 children allow us to trace where the family lived over the decades.

Peter’s parents and my great great grandparents, John (1826-1882) HEANEY and Sarah (1828-1898) BARLOW had 10 children from 1849 to 1877. See the list below.

The first 3 children were born in different parts of Manchester while the 4th child was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire. The 5th to 10th children were born in Macclesfield in Cheshire.

Here is a summary of John and Sarah’s large family from my RootsMagic database.

While both John and Sarah said they were born in Manchester, I can’t find them or their families on a census record till 1861, I’m sure they must be of Irish origin but I have no proof despite years of searching. It’s like they just appeared in Manchester in 1848 when they were married.

I read recently that Queen Victoria visited Manchester in 1851 and was the first monarch to visit Manchester for 150 years. I wonder if my HEANEY family were there to see her pass by.

his is the first census record for the family and it’s 1861 and they are now in Macclesfield where they will remain. There are 3 children listed as they have already buried their 3rd child, Richard back in Manchester in 1856. Note that Peter at 9 years of age is already working as an Errand Boy. He is the youngest ancestor of mine to go to work as a child.

Unfortunately, John died at the young age of 56 and from then on until Sarah’s death in 1898, she and the younger children lived with other family and had some admissions to the Macclesfield Workhouse which gives you an idea of how poor the family was.

Peter married in Macclesfield but like many men of that era, Peter lost his first wife in childbirth of their 2nd child, and so married twice.  1st daughter Annie. He remarried Mary Ann STONEHOWER/STONELEY (and other many other variations) and had 4 more children including my grandmother, Lily HEANEY BAMFORD pictured below. This is the earliest picture I have of anyone in my HEANEY family, it is my grandmother, Lily HEANEY.

I suspect that this photo was taken when Lily married in 1909 in Macclesfield. Her husband, Sam BAMFORD, my grandfather was a Silk dyer and I wonder if her dress was made from silk he’d dyed.

They must have been very poor as Mary Anne gave birth in the Macclesfield Workhouse to some of them including my grandmother, Lily (1882-1926). Peter appears to be moving around a lot and not in Macclesfield all the time but obviously there from time to time to impregnate Mary Ann and in 18.. to be the informant on his father’s death certificate.

All of Peter’s children had children, so perhaps you are one of their descendants and would be happy to share information and photos? I will be sharing my information about my Great grandfather, Peter and his descendants in a post T is for Tallow Chandler.

The surnames of the women and men who married Peter’s children were NEVILLE, BAMFORD, ROWSON, LEAH, HASSALL, WEAVER and HINKS.  I’d love to hear from anyone descended from these families. In the early years, they were in Macclesfield, around the Manchester area, in Uttoxeter in Staffordshire and my father emigrated to Australia. I wrote about his early years in Macclesfield and emigration to Australia here

N.B. any person with an * next to their name is one of my direct ancestors

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