French family

I have been doing some research on my maternal French line (French as in surname not nationality). Also I have acquired some photos from cousins of my mother.

Henry French, my great, great grandfather, was born in Preston on the 3 Aug 1872 and I always thought he was an only child. His parents were Michael French and Margaret Moylan, both born somewhere in Ireland in about 1847/1848. They married on 5 Dec 1869 at St Wahlburgs RC Church in Preston, before this date I am struggling to find either of them, so maybe they only came across to England between 1861 and their marriage in 1869. So think I need to leave that line alone for the time being.

Anyway back to Henry and him being an only child. When I was looking at the updates on Lancs BMD the other day I thought I would run the surname French and mothers maiden name Moylan through the database again between 1869 and 1889. Amazingly I found another boy born in 1871 called William (good sign both Michael and Margaret's fathers were called William). He wasn't on the 1871 census with them but he could have been born after census night so I searched Ancestry to see if I could find the quarter this William French was born in. I found it and it was in the Sep quarter. So before I ordered the certificate I thought I would try and find out what happened to William as there is no sign of him on the 1881 census and with only being 10 years old you would have expected him still to be at home with his parents, as his brother Henry was.

Searching Lancs BMD again I found a death of a William French in 1871 aged 0, checking Ancestry again I find this William French died in the Sep quarter. So I sent off for both certificates.

The death certificate has now arrived and although no mention of mothers surname it does have the child dying at the address the family were living at on the 1871 census and when their son Henry was born in 1872. Fathers occupation is exactly as stated on Henry's birth certificate the year after. Margaret French registers the death although she hasn't stated what relation she is the deceased I do believe I have found the sibling of my great, great grandfather.

He unfortunately was only 3 weeks old when he died, so the birth certificate I am awaiting is more than likely the correct one. Cause of death was Diarrhoea 5 days, poor little mite.

Anyway on a lighter note here are my French pictures


This is Margaret Mary French's wedding in 1920 to George Seed.

There are a few people on the picture I don't know but the man to the left of the groom is my great, great grandfather Henry French. Margaret is his eldest daughter.








This is the marriage of Henry French, my grandmothers brother.

The two bridesmaids are, on the left, Winnifred French (my grandmother) and, on the right, her sister Bessie French




This is the wedding of Annie French and Robert Rooney in 1920. To the right of the bride is her brother Billy French.

Walmsley Family Photos

Here are a just a few Walmsley family photos

This is my paternal grandparents, not sure what year it was taken but think its around the early 40s.











This is my dad and his younger brother Alan, think this was taken in about 1953.















My mum and dad's wedding














Me and my siblings, I am the blonde one










My dad and grandson Paul

Gibsons again

Its ages since I have updated this blog so thought while I had a bit of time to spare, before going back to work in a couple of days, I would use the time to update.

I have done quite alot more research on the Gibson line, Uncle Alan has been in touch with the son of Edith Hodgson, who was the daughter of Eleanor Gibson (born 1882), and he has a family bible which provided us with the dates of birth of all the children of Thomas Allan Gibson and Alice Gibson. It also had some of the marriages on, although not the partners, which gave me two of my great grandad John Gibson brothers weddings.

The first wedding was Allan Gibson "Uncle Pip" who the diary said married on 29 Mar 1916 in Morecambe, which was quite a find as we had believed Uncle Pip had never married. So I searched the Lancs BMD for any suitable marriages and found one to a lady called Margaret Dempster, and sent off for it. This turned out to be the right one and interestingly Allan and Margaret were both residing at Daisy Bank Farm, Middleton at the time of their marriage. Once I found her fathers details it was easy to find her family on the 1901 census living at Daisy Bank Farm. I havent as yet found out what happened to his wife as Uncle Alan doesnt remember anybody ever mentioning Uncle Pip having a wife or family.

Using Lancs BMD I did a search for any children born after 1916 with the mothers maiden name of Dempster and found a girl in the Sep quarter of 1916 with the name of Margaret Dempster Gibson, good sign I felt that I was on to a possible of daughter of Allan and Margaret. After receiving this certificate I found that it was the right child and the family were still living at Daisy Bank Farm, Middleton.

So lots of unanswered questions about Uncle Pip now, what happened to his wife that Uncle Alan never heard anything about and what happened to little Margaret. If either of them died young I still haven't found them and neither can I locate a marriage of Margaret Dempster Gibson if she did survive to adulthood. Also did they live at Daisy Bank Farm with Margaret's parents.

The second marriage the diary told us about was that of Stephen Gibson, married 16 Oct 1912 also in Morecambe. So again I sent off for this one and it turned out he married a lady call Grace Downham, married at the same church as Allan and Margaret.

Using Lancs BMD so far hasn't turned up any children of Stephen and Grace, but it might be that the mothers maiden names aren't all on them yet.

Anyway lots more information and lots more things to check.

Allan Gibson and family again

I decided to do a google search for St Andrews at Dent, the church Allan and Betsey Gibson were married in and a site came up that has the memorial inscriptions for the church.

The website lists names but not details of what the inscriptions says or any dates but I have found 4 people in one grave named Allan, Betsey, Elizabeth and Alice Gibson, so looks like it might be the family I am looking for.

A visit to the church is scheduled for next week.

Allan Gibson and family

I am trying to find all the partners of the Gibson siblings, I had found Elizabeth Gibson (born c1795) on the 1871 census living with Betsey Gibson, which I thought might be Elizabeth, wife of Allen Gibson - my 4x great grandparents. So after looking for a marriage between a Betsey and a Gibson son, the choices being Allan, Anthony or Joseph I found a marriage between an Allan Gibson and a Betsey Robinson in 1853 in Yorkshire. There was also a Betsey Robinson residing at the same place as Allan Gibson on the 1851 census, noted as being a servant.

The certificate has now arrived and it looks like I have found the right one. Age tallies as well as fathers details. Interestingly it states Allan Gibson residence was "the Parsonage, Dent", the minister at the wedding was John Sedgwick which I believe is the same person Allan was working for according to the 1851 census. He worked as a coachman.

Finding them on future censuses was relatively easy but Allan and Betsey weren't living together on either the 1861 or 1871 census. Allan was still working for Jane Sedgwick, widow to minister John Sedgwick on the 1861 census. The 1861 census shows that Betsey has now has two daughters Elizabeth (born c1854) and Alice (born c1856 in Dent, Yorkshire). Alice is still living with her mother on the 1871 census but Elizabeth has disappeared.

I then had trouble finding any of them after the 1871 census but I have found 4 deaths that might be theirs, Elizabeth aged 15 Dec 1869, Alice aged 16 Jun 1872, Betsey aged 49 Mar 1872 and then Allan aged 49 Mar 1873. I am intrigued now and want to know what, if it is them, they all died of so close together.

So I have sent off for the certificates and will report back when I get them.

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.