LANCASHIRE FAMILY HISTORY AND HERALDRY SOCIETY

 Rossendale Branch Newsletter October 2003

Programme:

TONIGHT

Wednesday 1st October

Members Miscellany. (Short talks by members on a subject of their choice)

Wednesday 5th November

The Lancashire Cotton Famine (1862 - 1865)

Fred Holroyd.

Wednesday 4th December

Christmas Celebrations.

2004

Wednesday 7th January

Research Evening

Wednesday 5th February

To be arranged

Wednesday 3rd March

Tracing your Army Ancestors. Jonathan Ali

Wednesday 7th April

AGM and Heirlooms.

Coming Events

Saturday 13th September.

The Great North Fair

Gateshead Stadium, Neilson Road, Gateshead

10.00 am - 4.30pm. adults £2.50, children free.

The new national event for Family Historians, supported by the History Channel and the 2003 Genealogy Project.

Saturday 8th November

The North West Group of Family History Societies

Family History Fair

Manchester Velodrome, the National Cycling Centre, Stuart Street, Manchester. 10.00am - 4.00pm.

Admission £2.00 (children free)

Refreshments ---- Free Parking

Free Lectures:

10.45am Basic Sources for Family History Research.

Bill Taylor LFHHS.

12.00 noon Family History Sources at Greater Manchester C.R.O. Vincent McKernan. Archivist.

1.15pm Use of computers in Family History Research.

Graham Fidler. FHS of Cheshire.

Stalls will cover all the usual topics -Books, FFHS publications, Source Indexes, Maps, Lancashire Parish Registers, Computer Software, Family History Societies, Public and County Record Office Information,

Details - Mr E.W. Gullick, 4 Lawrence Avenue, Simonstone, Burnley. BB12 7HX

email -ed@gull66.freeserve.co.uk

Saturday 8th November

One-Name Studies

A free seminar sponsored by the Halsted Trust will be held at the Swedenborg Society, 20 21 Bloomsbury Way, London 9.30am - 5.00pm

The seminar is entitled "Introducing the Guild" and it deals with all aspects of setting up a one name study. Tickets will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. Contact

John Hanson, 16 Audley Mead,
Milton Keynes, MK13 9BD or

email: halsted.seminar@one-name.org

KAY FAMILY ASSOCIATION

A good example of a one name association is the Kay Family Association. Their current secretary is Kay Relf, 38 Coombe Rise, Oadby, Leicester, LE2 5TT

Kay writes to tell me that the Kays are having their Annual Reunion/ Gathering at the Bolholt Hotel in Bury, 25th October 2003. Start 2.30pm with talks, discussions and tea. Dinner is at 7.30pm. Cost £15.

For further information and to join the society email krelf@dmu.ac.uk or write to the above address.

Newsplan 2000 -

Ramsbottom Observer and Bury Guardian

These two newspapers have recently been microfilmed under a project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the UK Newspaper Industry, to preserve unique and fragile collections of local newspapers, held in libraries throughout the UK.

The Ramsbottom Observer from 1906 - 1950 is now available on microfilm at Ramsbottom Library.

The Bury Guardian has also been microfilmed for the years 1857 - 1935. The original bound copies were stored in the basement at Bury library, but had become so brittle that they disintegrated when touched. The Bury Guardian was a Tory paper whereas The Bury Times supported the Liberal Party. The two papers merged in 1935. Both the Bury Times and Bury Guardian are now available on microfilm in Bury Reference Library.

1901 Census Index

Whilst we have been pressing ahead with the Lancashire BMD indexing project, our 1901 census indexing is being neglected.

To date the only areas to have been transcribed, typed and checked for publication are RG 13/3853 (Bacup, Tunstead and Stacksteads)

RG 13/3854 and RG 13/3855 (Haslingden).

Various registration districts have been transcribed but require typing up before checking at the library.

I am currently working on RG 13/3852 - Bacup.

Other areas still have had no work done on them.

If you have copies of the 1901 census on CD, transcribing and checking could be done at home.

Anyone interested in helping to complete this project should contact me.

Rossendale Ancestry

If you have Rossendale Ancestry, you may send details of your research for inclusion in our monthly newsletter. We are also happy to print short articles and queries on the neighbourhood, as space allows. Please add your membership number.

Diary that is a Family Heirloom.

adapted for an article by Albert Mathias which appeared in the Rossendale Free Press. c1960s.

Today a journey to Australia becomes a happy holiday prospect, quite a lot different from the experience of an emigrant, more than 80 years ago. What it was like then, it is possible to glean from the personal diary of a Rossendale man who made such a journey,

The diary,at the time this article was written was a family heirloom in the possession of Miss Phoebe Brennand, who lived in Newchurch Road, Rawtenstall.

It was written by, a relative, Stephen Brennand who in 1883, left Rossendale with his friend Alfred Gaskell to emigrate to Australia. He was 33 at the time, six years older than his friend Alfred.

The diary opens with the railway journey to London, when Stephen and Alfred were accompanied by James Ashworth of the Bee Hive, in Bacup.

Stephen Brennand sailed to Adelaide South Australia, on the clipper ship "Harbinger" on the 18th August 1883. His descriptions of the scene of departure from London are typical of the sadness of these occasions. As the ship cast off, he felt a great sense of loneliness at not having familiar faces around.

You get something of the attitude of those days towards the emigrant and obviously he resents being "treated as some runaway scoundrel and eyed in most cases with suspicion and distrust".

A keen observer he reacts to the wonder of being at sea. He describes the food, storms, the death of a mother in childbirth, and how tensions lead to fights and squabbles.

The voyage took three months; towards the end, he said "I have almost to lie down to write anything. I am so weary with the blessed monotony". On Monday 12th November, they went ashore. The last entry reads "Weary, Weary, Weary". The Harbinger had travelled 14,000 miles.

Submitted by Michael Hiluta.

In 1881 Stephen Brennand aged 30, (born Grindleton, Yorkshire) was living at Waterfoot with his mother, Ellen, 69 (born Gisburn Yorks) and two brothers Phineas and Abraham (both aged 24) born Whalley.