Cross Keys Inn, Whitechapel, Lancashire

Well I thought I would just update my blog with what I did on my day off this week. After receiving Annie Gibson's wedding certificate I was surprised that it had said Thomas Allan Gibson, her father, was an Innkeeper. I decided to send off for Thomas Allan's death certificate, as I knew this was a couple of years before Annie had married.

Anyway the certificate arrived and he died on 24 Dec 1909 and it states he was an Innkeeper and Farmer and lived at Cross Keys Inn, Goosnargh. Annie's marriage certificate had said it was in Whitechapel, which is very close to Goosnargh. So I think I can safely say I had found my great, great grandfather's death.

So yesterday we, myself and my uncle Alan, decided to go and look for the Cross Keys Inn. I got out my trusty sat nav, I don't know how I ever got anywhere without it, we set off to Whitechapel and decided while we were there we would look for the local church to see if there were any graves of interest to us.

Above you can see the picture I took of what is left of the Cross Keys Inn, it is not open anymore which is a shame, and there is no farm there now either.

The church turned out to be directly across the road, which was handy. We easily found Thomas Allan's grave and he was buried with his wife Alice and two of their children, who I hadn't been aware of as they had only lived a short while. Both called Amy, one died at 1 year and the other only 7 months, poor little girls.

We also found Annie's grave with her husband William Procter, so that was an added bonus.

So a good afternoon's work all in, more dates and pictures for my family tree and two little girls death certificates to find now.

Annie Gibson

After finding this newspaper clipping in the photographs that my uncle had I decided I would do some research on Annie Gibson, my great grandfathers sister, who married William Procter.

This clipping is from their golden wedding and I believe the picture below, if you look closely you can see they are wearing the same outfits, is taken on the same day and is a picture of their whole family. We haven't worked out who any of the other people are yet though.

So I decided to send off for their marriage certificate, they were married on 28 June 1911 at Whitechapel Parish Church in Whitechapel, Preston. He is noted as living at Barnes Lane, Whitechapel, Preston and is a Farm Labourer and his father was James Procter and he was a Farmer.

Annie is noted as living at Cross Keys Inn, Whitechapel, Preston and her father, as I already knew was Thomas Allan Gibson. But something I didn't know is that he was noted as being an Innkeeper, this is a complete surprise as we always thought he was a Farmer throughout his life. He is deceased by this time as I believe he died in 1909, so now I have sent off for his death certificate to see where he was residing at the time of death and what his occupation was.

Gibson family photos

I went to visit my Uncle Alan and his partner Mavis yesterday, which was a lovely day. Alan had managed to borrow some old family photographs from his adopted sister Kathy. So we spent the afternoon scanning about 150 of the photos, with my new scanner might I add, and I will now post some of the pictures.

Here is a small selection of my favourite ones so far

The one above is Allan Gibson (better know as Uncle Pip) born circa 1887, he is the brother to my great grandfather John Gibson.






This is Allan Hodgson, my grandmother's cousin

Doesn't he look glamorous.

Celebration of Family History - Chorley

I went to the Celebration of Family History at Astley Hall at Chorley today, which was very interesting.

They have some really useful stalls there, including Preston Records Office so I asked the gentleman behind the stall about the Workhouse records, if you have read my previous posts you will already know about my hunt for further information on William Moon.

Anyway the man said that if it was Burnley Workhouse I had been interested in they would have been able to provide me with lots as they have all the records but they hardly have any for Preston, which is just sod's law isn't it. They only really have information on the workhouse itself no family records.

I also had a nice chat to a lady called Margaret Purcell who was from the Irish group of the LFHHS who gave me some really useful tips, and a list of good books, to help me get further on my Irish side of the family.

So watch this space I intend to do some more research on my Irish roots by the end of this year.

All in all it was a nice afternoon. Astley Hall is a lovely building and the staff were wandering around in Elizabethan costumes, which does add a nice touch.

http://www.ukattraction.com/north-west-england/astley-hall.htm

Am going to visit my uncle tomorrow to look at some family photos, taking my new scanner with me so hopefully will be able to scan them whilst I am there, see I knew the portable scanner would come in useful.