Mary Ann Gordon

Mary Ann, my maternal grandmother, was born 90 years ago today in Pelton Fell, County Durham. She died in 2010 just a couple of months before her and my grandad Raymond Bell’s 65th wedding anniversary.
She was the second eldest child in a large family, her elder brother, Robert, died in action during WW2. He served with the Durham Light Infantry and his grave is in El Alamein cemetery.

A long but useful day

View from the gallery at WDYTYA? Live

As I travel back up the country, I can reflect on what has been a long but interesting and relatively useful visit to Who Do You Think You Are? Live. I think it’s certainly worth a visit but I’m not sure I’ll be a return visitor, unlike many of the people there who are seasoned WDYTYA Live veterans.

The workshops I attended have certainly given me some food for thought, especially the last one I went to, which was about taking the step from amateur to pro genealogist. The Ask the Experts session was useful, despite me having to show the expert how to use the ancestry website!

I missed out on having an expert look at my photos and speaking to someone on the Forces War Records stall – the queues were just too long each time I went to check in between workshops. I have come away with some new resources, a good deal on issues of WDYTYA magazine and some ideas for new research methods so, overall, it was a productive day. Hopefully, I’ll be sharing new discoveries very soon!

Day trip

I’m on my way to Who Do You Think You Are Live at The Olympia in London! Despite the early start, I’m eager to get the most out of my day there but at the same time I’m trying not to expect too much from it because I don’t want to be disappointed if I come away this evening having learned little new. Even to have the chance to spend the day with others who share my passion for family history research will be a nice change from the purely virtual contact I’ve had with various people on my journey back through the generations.
Hopefully, I’ll have at least a couple of discoveries to report on my way home!

Calling all Unsworths!

My maiden name is Unsworth but other than my immediate family I don’t know any other related Unsworths. My dad was an only child, as was his dad. My great grandad just had one sister and although my great great grandad does appear to have had a brother called William I think he may have died as a child so I’ve got to go back to another generation before I can start attempting to trace forward any other Unsworth lines!

So, if anyone happens to come across this post and is an Unsworth or has Unsworth ancestors who were born/lived in Wigan, Lancashire, England (particularly offspring of Richard Unsworth [c1795] and Mary Catterall) I’d love to hear from you!

Who Do You Think You Are Live

I’ve decided to venture away from the digital world of family history and take a trip to WDYTYA Live! I’d been undecided about whether or not to spend the money to make the trip to London but when I looked at the list of workshops there were quite a few that interested me. I checked the trains and found that, if I left really early, I could get there and back in the day so no need for an overnight stay. I decided to book, bought one of the VIP tickets so I’d get pre-booked workshops and a 20-minute session with an expert. I even found a first class train ticket for the way down for £39! (My return isn’t first class and is more expensive )

I excitedly told my husband that I’d made my mind up and everything was booked then 30 minutes later was sat watching tv and it suddenly dawned on me that its my neice’s FIRST birthday the same day! I was so absorbed in my quest to find out more about my past family that I’d forgotten about my present one! I’ll have to bring her something special back from London!

Bolton cemeteries going online

Reblogged from Grow Your Own Family Tree:

Burial records for the seven cemeteries and one crematorium managed by Bolton Council, Lancashire are being made available online.

Read more… 206 more words

Looking forward to searching these records for my Bolton based ancestors!

James Spence Bell

James Spence Bell is my ggg grandfather and is my first link back to Scottish ancestors. James has been an interesting person to trace and there are still some mysteries surrounding him. His year of birth has been hard to confirm as its slightly different on each census return and the one marriage certificate I have for him just says ‘of full age’ but it is somewhere between 1809 and 1815. What is more certain, is that he was born in Scotland and most probably in Glasgow.

The first evidence I have for James is after he’d made the move to England, when he married his first wife Mary Eleanor Middlemiss(mass) in Whitehaven, Cumberland in 1840. By 1851 James was living in Ryhope, Sunderland with his third wife, Elizabeth Brown. In between, he married Jane Robinson who is my direct ancestor – James and Jane had one child, my great great grandad, Thomas Robinson Bell. In 1851 James is living with his new wife Elizabeth, the son from his first marriage, William Fawcett Bell, my gg grandad, Thomas and John Maughan, who is listed as James’ son-in-law (Jane Robinson had previously been married to a Maughan so I’m presuming John is her son).

James appears to have remained in Sunderland until he died in 1873. I’d love to hear from anyone who can tell me more about him!