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Good News for Ancestor research

2017-07-23T11:54:00.000+08:00

After a long break Your Ancestors Free.Com. is back under a new name Find Ancestors Free.

If you need some help in finding someone in your .. family tree just leave a message in the comments

Cotton Mill Girl Sings

2017-03-30T02:52:00.000+08:00

Gracie Fields was a British singer, comedian who became a big star of both cinema and Music Hall.

Born over a Fish and Chip shop in Rochdale,Lancashire.

Gracie started her working life in the local cotton mill of Rochdale. She gained a following with her self deprecating jokes and comic songs.

She had a no airs and graces working class style which made her the darling of the working class during the Depression years in England.

Gracie became one of Britain's highest paid performers of the 1930's.

Please Click here for link - Grace Fields - Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye)

Gracie also stared in the hit movie "Molly and Me" (1945)

You can watch the full movie of "Molly and Me" here

Please Click here for link - You Tube - Molly and Me - Full Movie

Munition Factory,

2014-05-09T16:02:00.000+08:00

During the 2nd World War my Grandmother worked at a munition factory in Chorley.,Lancashire.The bus would pick up the workers from Nelson,early in the morning and and then drop them off late at night.This is all i know, i would love to sit with her now and hear what she had to say about life in the war years.

Royal Ordnance ,otherwise known as ROF Chorley or Filling Factory Number 1. It was opened in 1939 by King George the V1. During the 2nd World War over 35000 people were working there.

In 1943 workers on the site filtered Torpex explosive into the famous 'Bouncing Bombs' used to attack German Dams in the Dambuster Raids

Today Buckshaw Village is on the site of the former Royal Ordnance

Nelson, Lancashire Good Old Days

2014-05-03T12:12:00.004+08:00

This collection of short movies was made in 1962. Set in Nelson and the Pendle Countryside, it is a window to the past,with a view to how people from the north of England lived.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5uaFQrEidg

Blackpool 1930

2014-04-26T15:33:00.002+08:00

Blackpool 1930

My Great Aunt Annie having fun at Blackpool

Blackpool In Its Hey Day

2014-04-26T13:27:00.000+08:00

Nelson ,Lancashire, like other mill towns in that area Nelson folk would have their summer holiday at the same week each year. Nelson week ,the second week in July would see the streets in Nelson bare as many.would head for the seaside.Blackpool became a favourite.
'Oh we do like to be beside the seaside'
Families would head for the golden sands after hiring the use of a couple of deck chairs. Those without children headed for the Piers or the Tower Ballroom.
I have memories of my Dad, who could not swim padding at the water edge,while my Mum made the most of sitting in her deck chair.I was happy to build sandcastles with my Tin Pale

Bradford and West Yorkshire War Years

2014-04-25T20:19:00.002+08:00

During the 2nd WW children were evacuated out of the city of Bradford to safer areas in England. Nelson in Lancashire became one of these towns that took the evacuated children..Read about Bradford during the war years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/peoples_war/ww2.shtml

WW2 People's War

2014-04-25T12:06:00.002+08:00

This site has a collection of stories from people who grew up during the 2nd World War. They tell of Evacuation and rationing and what they remember about the war years

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/categories/c1136/index_6.shtml

Nelson ,East lancashire Bombed

2014-04-24T15:06:00.003+08:00

This map shows where Nelson and the other towns in East Lancashire were bombed by the Germans .

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=208650890907008343778.00048faa98774214fca11&dg=feature

The British Army In WW 1

2014-04-24T09:16:00.003+08:00

Helpful site about the British Army in the 1st WW. 1914-1918. Tips on how to research a soldier

http://www.1914-1918.net/

Sam Hanna Film Collection

2014-04-23T09:01:00.002+08:00

Sam Hanna was an amateur film maker.Born in Burnley, Lancashire in 1903.His collection of films were acquired by the North West Film Archive. A selection of his films are online at the following web site

http://www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk:591/samhanna/sam_hanna_collection.html

Nelson,Lancashire.Photos and Maps

2014-04-22T12:04:00.002+08:00

Take a look at this site,the photos show Nelson in 1950. Free search for many places in England.

http://www.francisfrith.com/nelson,lancashire/photos/

How Nelson grew into a town

2014-04-21T10:28:00.000+08:00

The history of Nelson in Lancashire

http://www.lancashire.gov.uk/environment/documents/historictowns/NelsonComplete_LowRes.pdf

Memories Of The Mill Workers

2014-04-20T12:12:00.000+08:00

Good site about the Mill Workers with many interviews from the people who lived that life.

http://www.millthreads.co.uk/

Nelson's Mill Housing

2014-04-17T16:41:00.001+08:00

Nelson’s Mill Housing
By Deborah Mulhearn | Published in History Today Volume: 52 Issue: 5 2002

400 pre-1919 terraced house in Nelson, Lancashire.

A public inquiry into the proposed clearance of 400 terraced houses has highlighted the dilemma facing many local councils, particularly in the North West of England where regional planning bodies say at least 70,000 pre-1919 houses need to be cleared to regenerate deprived areas. The houses in question were built for cotton mill workers in the second half of the nineteenth century in the tiny Lancashire town of Nelson, one of a cluster of former mill towns that flourished in the damp valleys beneath Pendle Hill.

The mills may be gone, but English Heritage is backing local residents’ opposition to the plans because it believes the houses, mostly in private ownership, are of historic and architectural significance, and should be saved. Pendle Borough Council wants to replace the terraces with a staged development of new houses built to modern standards. The council, while acknowledging the upheaval and anxiety felt by the residents, insists that new build is the only way to regenerate an area where properties are changing hands for as little as £4,000.

I found this to be very interesting.I have been over to Nelson a couple of times and saw the beginning and completion of some of these houses

List of mills in Lancashire

2014-04-13T12:02:00.002+08:00

Renee Hartley was born in Nelson. She left school when she was 15 and went to work in one of Nelson,s mills. Here she became a weaver.Nelson in Lancashire was at the centre of the weaving boom with Nelson having 22 mills. Now most of the mills have been knocked down and Renee now 84 still lives in Nelson a town full of old people.

This site has a list of all the mills in Lancashire,click on the name of a town and the mills will appear.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mills_in_Lancashire‎ This is a list of the cotton and other textile mills in Lanc

Killyleagh To Pawtucket

2011-06-22T16:09:00.006+08:00

Thankyou to Mary for sending me this story.

This is a story written by James Bruno about my grandfather, Thomas J. Kelly, printed in the Providence Sunday Journal in April of 1959. He was so gifted. Poppy sang like an angel and when he wasn’t singing he was whistling. My grandmother told my mother that she fell in love with him when she heard him sing. Lucky for me. I miss them both.

The title is "Pawtucket’s Singing Sexton" and "Thomas Kelly an Irishman Who Proves it in Music."

"They laughed when I walked on stage with my melodeon, but when I played an Irish jig and Marion Miliken danced as an Irish colleen–that got ‘em.”

You can see from the foregoing, that Thomas J. Kelly is an Irishman, and he loves to sing about it. Seems everything he does is in some way Irish. He was describing the recent “Irish Revue” of St. Mary’s Church in Pawtucket.

Mr. Kelly is Pawtucket’s “Singing Sexton.” The Irish tenor, who lives at 23 Randall Street, sings for weddings and funerals and at anniversary Masses at St. Mary’s Church.

A few minutes after meeting Kelly you discover why his favorite song is “Little Town in Auld County Down.” He was born there, 51 years ago.

Church sextons, it is said, are often seen but not heard. Not so with Irish Kelly, who wears an irrepressible smile, is proud of his Irish brogue and is happy with a sheet of music or a broom.

Kelly opens the church doors at 6:30 every morning. He sweeps, dusts, takes care of the boiler, the altar, the grounds and a multitude of other things. He’s the man who swings on the rope to peal the church bell.

But there is no such thing he’d rather do more than sing Irish songs. And this he does at every opportunity. His favorites are, “Rose of Tralee,” “Danny Boy,” “Doonaree,” and “The Isle of Innisfree.”

His Irish heritage was bestowed upon him the day he was born in the Town of Killyleagh, in County Down, on the shores of Strangford Lough Bay.

When he was only nine months old, his parents emigrated to the United States, but they returned to Ireland after two years, because Papa Kelly’s doctor prescribed Ireland’s green hills for the elder Kelly’s failing health.
So while his father farmed, young Kelly worked in a linen mill, played on the soccer and cricket teams, went to St. Mary’s Parochial School in Killyleagh. He sang in school shows, concerts, and joined the dramatic societies, singing wherever he could.

In 1929, at 22, Kelly and his mother returned to Pawtucket, to the home of his uncle, Thomas Laverty, 13 Clyde St. He found work, joined the Knights of Columbus, attended a lot of “Irish kitchen parties,” and sang his way to a local radio station, where he landed a job. He and Nora Casey were “Irelands’ Own Entertainers” for about a year in 1931.

At one of those kitchen parties, Mr. Kelly met Mary Dornan, who was Irish. She was born in County Armagh in the Town of Lurgan, and that was fine with Kelly. They were married.

Then came Eileen, now 19, a student nurse at Roger Williams General Hospital, who will graduate this year, on scholarships; and James, 18, a graduate of St. Raphael Academy, Pawtucket, who is Army bound; and Maureen, 17, who will graduate from St. Mary’s Academy, Bay View, in June, and plans to enter the Order of the Little Sisters of the Poor; and Patricia, 16, a sophomore at St. Xavier Academy, Providence.

Mr. Kelly worked for 13 years at the Anaconda Wire and Cable Co., rising to position of foreman. He took the sexton’s job at St. Mary’s Church, Jan. 27, 1947, when it was offered to him by the late Rt. Rev. Msgr. Cornelius J. Holland, then pastor of the church. There was nothing in the agreement about Kelly’s singing.

However, the “singing sexton” of St. Mary’s has always been at home, whether he was singing the Angelus in the choir loft, whistling a tune as he performed an ecclesiastical errand, or hammering away at the work bench in the boiler room.

So, whether you enter the old church on Pine Street to meditate within its quiet walls or attend a crowded service there, chances are you’ll see Mr. Irish himself in one of his many roles. Look for a fair-haired man, who appears to know his way around and whose deep blue eyes practically spell I-R-E-L-A-N-D

County Clare Roman Catholic Baptisms

2014-03-08T16:57:00.000+08:00

County Clare's first batch of Roman Catholic baptisms for seven parishes are now available online Rootsireland is delighted to announce that Clare Heritage & Genealogy Centre has now made their first batch of Roman Catholic baptisms for seven parishes available online. The parishes covered are listed below. Parish Cratloe 1802 - 1901 Crusheen 1860 - 1900 Ennis 1841 - 1900 Feakle 1860 - 1900 Mountshannon and Whitegate 1846 - 1900 Parteen 1831 - 1902 Scariff 1852 - 1900 Further Co. Clare parish records including marriages and deaths, as well as further baptismal records, will be made available online on a phased basis. Please find a list of County Clare sources that are currently online at County Clare Sources List

New Armagh Ancestry Records

2013-12-07T11:41:00.000+08:00

New Armagh Ancestry Records Available Armagh Ancestry have completed the computerization of new Church baptisms, marriages and deaths for county Armagh. These have been added to the online research database and are available to research. The new records added are for the following Churches; Armagh Methodist (Baptisms 1844-1846) Lurgan (High Street) Methodist (Baptisms 1813-1864 + Marriages 1842-1844) Moira Methodist (Baptisms 1827-1844) Newry Methodist (Baptisms 1824-1865 + Deaths 1835) Portadown (Thomas Street) Methodist (Baptisms 1824-1864 + Marriages 1839-1841) Tandragee Methodist (Baptisms 1800-1866 + Marriages 1838-1845) Portadown Primitive Methodist (Baptisms 1847-1878) Eglish Church of Ireland (Baptisms 1803-1865 + Deaths 1803-1805) Kilmore (St Saviours) Church of Ireland (Baptisms 1843-1863) Richhill Congregationalist Church (Baptisms 1845-1867 + Marriages 1850-1876) Lurgan (Quaker) Society of Friends (Baptisms 1607-1862 + Marriages 1634-1848 + Deaths 1697-1898) Richhill & Grange (Quaker) Society of Friends (Baptisms 1812-1878 + Marriages 1816-1836 + Deaths 1747-1920) http://armagh.rootsireland.ie/generic.php?filename=sources.tpl&selectedMenu=sources

Westmorland Records

2013-11-25T09:47:00.001+08:00

Since 1974 Westmorland has been incorporated into the present-day county of Cumbria together with Cumberland, the Furness part of Lancashire and a small part of the former West Riding of Yorkshire around Sedbergh http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/WES/

Workington Regiment

2013-11-23T10:59:00.000+08:00

The Workington Regiment of local Militia was formed in 1803 This site has names and ranks of the volunteer Infantry. https://sites.google.com/site/workingtonmilitia/

Cheshire Archives

2013-11-22T09:43:00.001+08:00

This site has Parish Registers and Bishops's Transcripts http://archives.cheshire.gov.uk/family_history/parish_registers_and_bishop%E2%80%99s.aspx

English Parish Records Online

2013-11-21T08:27:00.000+08:00

England, Lancashire Cheshire, Yorkshire, Parish Registers.1603-1910 This is a free records site with an excellent search engine https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1788853

Parish Records

2013-11-20T15:52:00.001+08:00

Record Content Church of England parish register baptism records usually contain the following information: Baptism date Name of the child Sex of the child Legitimacy of the child Marital status of the parents Social class of the parents Name of the father and often mother’s given name May list the residence of the parents, especially after 1812 Church of England parish register marriage records usually contain the following information: Marriage date Name of the bride and groom Age of the bride and groom May list names of parents or other relatives After 1837, the full names of the fathers Residence of the bride and groom Marital status of individuals and couples May list the dates that the marriage was announced (also called “banns published”). This normally took place on three separate occasions prior to the marriage and gave anyone with a valid reason a chance to object to the marriage. After 1754, the full names of witnesses May note if a spouse is single or widowed at the time of the marriage Church of England parish register burial records usually contain the following information: Burial date Name of the deceased. If the deceased is a child, the father’s name might be given. If the deceased is a married woman, the husband’s name might be given. Age of the person Residence of the deceased May give the sex of the deceased Residence of the deceased

FreeBMD

2013-11-20T08:58:00.001+08:00

FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed Records. This site is an excellent source of information for every one researching their family history. It is updated regularly and is free. http://www.freebmd.org.uk/

Find Ancestors Free

Good News for Ancestor research

Cotton Mill Girl Sings

Munition Factory,

Nelson, Lancashire Good Old Days

Blackpool 1930

Blackpool In Its Hey Day

Bradford and West Yorkshire War Years

WW2 People's War

Nelson ,East lancashire Bombed

The British Army In WW 1

Sam Hanna Film Collection

Nelson,Lancashire.Photos and Maps

How Nelson grew into a town

Memories Of The Mill Workers

Nelson's Mill Housing

Nelson’s Mill HousingBy Deborah Mulhearn | Published in History Today Volume: 52 Issue: 5 2002

List of mills in Lancashire

Killyleagh To Pawtucket

County Clare Roman Catholic Baptisms

New Armagh Ancestry Records

Westmorland Records

Workington Regiment

Cheshire Archives

English Parish Records Online

Parish Records

FreeBMD

Nelson’s Mill Housing
By Deborah Mulhearn | Published in History Today Volume: 52 Issue: 5 2002