Caddy's part 1

I have neglected this blog for far too long and need to try and make more of an effort to keep it up-to-date.

For the last couple of months I have been concentrating on my Caddy line, So far I have 3 generations of Caddy's starting with my 2x great grandmother Eleanor Caddy who was born in Barbon, Westmorland in 1864. Her father was John Caddy he was born in 1829 in Grange, Lancashire. From John's marriage certificate I found that his father was a Labourer and was also called John.

On the 1841 census I find John (c1829) living with his father John and other children Betsy, Ellen and William, As there are no relationships on the 1841 census I decided I need to check all these children to clarify whether or not they were all siblings. Further census returns for John say that he was born in Cartmel.

I did a search on the Lancs OPC website and found 3 baptisms at Cartmel St Mary & St Michael, one for Ellen baptised 24 Mar 1833 parents John and Elizabeth, one for a child called Henry baptised in 1851 who's parents were Jonathan and Agnes and William baptised 3 Dec 1837 who was the child of Margaret single woman.

The William born 1837 was a possible match for the William I found on the 1841 census, so now I need to find out who Margaret Caddy . Anyway I decided I need to find the baptism records for John, Betsy and now Margaret Caddy and as I live within 3 miles of the Lancashire RO I tried there first as they do have some of the parish records for Cartmel, although the majority of them are at Kendal RO.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that between 1815 and 1833 I found 8 children being born to John and Elizabeth Caddy, all baptised at St Mary and St Michaels in Cartmel. Alice 1815, Jonathan 1817, Margaret 1819, Anne 1823, James 1825, Betsey 1827, John 1829 and then Ellen 1833. If these are all my Caddys then the William Caddy born 1837 must be the child of Margaret 1819. I also looked through the burials and found John Caddy who died in 1867 aged 79 and Betsy 1838 aged 46 and Alice 1823 aged 7.

Once home I then looked for Margaret she married Thomas Gawith in 1841 and by the 1851 census son William is living with her and her husband in Dalton. I found the marriage record in the Lancs OPC website and this confirms that her father was John Caddy a Labourer.

The John and Elizabeth Caddy for all the above baptisms do seem to tally with each other, in that they all have them living in Grange and occupation is either Labourer/Farmer or Husbandman. I have looked for another John Caddy who this could be but he seems to be the only one suitable.

I still need to find the marriage of John and Elizabeth, which I think I am going to have to go to Kendal RO to find now.

Since finding the above I have been to Cartmel St Mary & St Michael to look for any gravestones that might shed more light on my Caddy's I will write off now and tell you about that soon.

Fernando Rafferty Roy

Here is the latest addition to our family, my new little nephew Fernando Rafferty Roy Walmsley

He was born on Tuesday 30th June 2009 weighing 6lb 13oz., he is my brothers first child.

Isn't he beautiful :o)

William French 1871-1871

Just a little update on the French family and my great grandfather Henry's brother William.

The birth certificate arrived and as I thought it is the right child. He was born William French 3 Aug 1871 to parents Michael French and Margaret Moylan and the family were living at 8 Back Bolton Street, Preston. As I said previously this is the address the family were living at in 1871 and at the time of their son Henry's birth in August 1872.

His birth was registered on the 23 August 1871 and he died 3 days later on the 26th. His mother registered both the birth and the death, on the 28th, within 5 days of each other. How sad must that have been for her.

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.