Cheshire AnCestor Registered Charity: 515168 Society website: www.fhsc.org.uk Contents Editorial 2 How to Find New Relatives and get Chairman’s Jottings 3 Hooked on Genealogy in a Year 31 Mobberley Research Centre 5 Spotlight on Parish Chest Membership Issues 10 Settlements and Removals 36 Family History Events 11 Stockport BMDs 38 Family History News 15 DNA and the Grandmother Family History Website News 16 Conundrum 40 Books Worth Reading 19 Certificate Exchange 43 Letters to the Editor 22 Net That Serf (grey pages) 46 Help Wanted or Offered 25 Group Events and Activities 56 Aspects of a Registrar’s Professional New Members (green pages) 66 Life 27 Members’ Interests 71 Cover picture: Over (Winsford), St. Chad. The church is late fifteenth century with a tower added in the early sixteenth century. The chancel was lengthened in 1926. There is a monument to Hugh Starkey who rebuilt the church in 1543. Cheshire AnCestor is published in March, June, September and December (see last page). The opinions expressed in this journal are those of individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of either the editor or the Society. All advertisements are commercial and not indicative of any endorsement by the Society. No part of this journal may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the prior written permission of the editor and, where applicable, named authors. The Society accepts no responsibility for any loss suffered directly or indirectly by any reader or purchaser as a result of any advertisement or notice published in this Journal. Please send items for possible publication to the editor: by post or email. All items should include name & membership number or postal address of submitter. Our society was founded in 1969— one of the first family history societies Cheshire AnCestor 1 June 2012 Editorial by Jean Laidlaw First may I thank members who responded to my comments on the reliability of online family trees. Some of these comments appear on the Letters page. Please keep them coming. I have made a few slight alterations in this issue including sections on family history events, family history news and website news rather than combining them in the notice board section. I hope it will be easier to follow. As most of us will testify, we never ‘finish’ family history research. This is now more true than ever as more and more records become available via the internet. It is now possible to find information which previously might have been inaccessible and illustrates that any clue about a person should be followed up, however insignificant it might seem. Some years ago when my father-in-law died, I was given some photographs and a newspaper cutting containing an obituary of his great-uncle John Richard OLIVER who died in Hartlepool in 1916. It mentioned that he was a Member of "James Rewcastle Lodge" I.O.G.T (International Order of Good Templars - a temperance society). I have been looking at the OLIVER family recently and noticing this reference decided to search the internet to see if I could find more information about this aspect of his life. What I found amazed me! His brother Edward OLIVER, who was mentioned in the obituary as a fellow member of the "James Rewcastle Lodge”, was recorded in a book entitled History of Spennymoor by John Reavley published in 1935, which is available online. He is described thus ‘ He rose in the ranks of Good Templary and reached the highest possible post, that of Grand Chief Templar of England.’ I immediately emailed the International Order of Good Templars and within a couple of days I received a reply saying that he had served as Grand Chief Templar from 1923-8 and before that as Grand Secretary of the movement. My father-in-law, who was fond of the odd tipple, had never mentioned this. His great-uncle died when he was thirteen so perhaps he did not know. I think the moral of the tale is check all your information for possible avenues to explore and keep looking. Family history is never finished! Cheshire AnCestor 2 June 2012 Chairman’s Jottings by Alan Bennett Dear All In my last jottings I announced a competition that I set after the death of my great-uncle at the age of 101. Since then his baby sister has passed away leaving just one brother still living at 99 not out. I had a number of people who talked to me about their families but very few actually emailed me with details. The winning entry, however, beat my details by some distance. The winner has reported a family that had 13 children who had a combined age of 815 years. My 12 only reach 741 years. The children of Daniel Massey & Mary Maurice (Morris) Name Baptism Burial Age Date Date Joseph Massey 12 Jul 1759 26 Nov 1843 84 Elizabeth Massey 23 Aug 1761 21 Apr 1832 72 James Massey 22 Dec 1763 18 Oct 1848 84 Samuel Massey 11 May 1766 5 Mar 1840 74 Daniel Massey 16 Oct 1768 25 Jul 1855 87 Mary Massey 16 Mar 1771 1 Nov 1774 3 John Massey 6 Jul 1773 17 Dec 1848 75 Mary Massey 24 May 1776 10 Oct 1862 88 Jane Massey 24 May 1776 16 Jul 1851 77 Ann Massey 25 Oct 1778 25 Nov 1850 73 Richard Massey 24 Jun 1781 21 Feb 1782 0 William Massey 7 Dec 1783 29 Jan 1837 53 Richard Massey 25 Feb 1787 22 Apr 1832 45 815 As promised I have a prize for the winner. I have donated a copy of my favourite genealogy software - The Master Genealogist . Congratulations to Peter Lewis. Cheshire AnCestor 3 June 2012 I would now like to express my sincere thanks to Heather Booth who has now stood down as our committee member responsible for processing new membership applications. She has done a fantastic job while I have been involved with the committee. Thank you Heather. We have been very fortunate to find a replacement in Sue McNulty. Good luck in your new role. Finally, I am sorry to say that this will be my last Chairman’s Jottings. After much soul-searching, I have decided to stand down as Chairman of the society. Over the last year I have found that, for personal reasons, I have not been able to give the role the time it deserves. I will continue to be the webmaster and will therefore still play my part in the running of the society. I will also continue to be one of the trustees for the Mobberley Research Centre. I trust that a replacement Chairman will be found as soon as possible. I hope that I have played my part in the history of the society in that a new website was created and the move of the research centre to Mobberley was achieved. My sincere thanks go to all members of the committee, and to all our members, who have supported me over the last few years. Desperately seeking… Honorary Secretary We need a Secretary who will consider shadowing the present secretary and take up office from the 2012 AGM. Requirements are agenda and minute preparation and room booking for four quarterly meetings a year, maintenance of a committee list, an annual report, completion of the charity report and occasional responses to emails. The tasks are not onerous. Contact Lesley Smetham (see inside front cover of Cheshire AnCestor ) for further details. Cheshire AnCestor 4 June 2012 Mobberley Research Centre by Alan E Jones The Research Centre at Mobberley was formally opened by the Mayor of Cheshire East, Councillor Roger West, on Saturday 4th February. Despite a sudden snowfall just prior to the opening, the event was well supported by other local family and social history groups and by the Mobberley community, including members of the Parish Council and the Mobberley Village Society. L to R: Cllr David Bailey, Parish Council Chairman; the Mayor; Lesley Smetham; Valerie Hess, Cheshire Local History Association; Jonathan Pepler, County Archivist Following the opening speech by the Mayor, a welcome speech was made by the Chairman of Mobberley Parish Council, Councillor David Bailey. Jonathan Pepler, Archivist at the County Record Office, then spoke about the long and successful relationship between the County Record Office and the Family History Society of Cheshire. Finally our chairman, Alan Bennett, thanked local people for their welcome and also thanked the research centre management committee and other volunteers who staff the centre for the excellent work done in the relocation of the facilities to Mobberley. Cheshire AnCestor 5 June 2012 The mayor with the Research Centre Management Committee. L to R: Lesley Smetham, Joan Irving, Kay Brown, Maureen Kitson, Alan Jones The Mayor enjoyed himself and was impressed by the research facilities. Duty volunteers did a quick search and produced a basic ‘family tree’ for the Mayor in just a few minutes. The Mayor and Lesley Smetham chatting to Bryan Goodwin, one of our volunteers. Cheshire AnCestor 6 June 2012 The Computer Room facilities attracted a lot of interest. Many visitors were impressed with our library collection. Some took the opportunity to delve into books of particular interest. Visitors having no Cheshire ancestors were surprised to find that we have resources for areas outside Cheshire. The facility for scanning book pages on our dedicated scanner also attracted attention. Cheshire AnCestor 7 June 2012 In preparation for the opening day display, an impressive large-scale family tree was printed at the Research Centre for Mr Brian Caveney, a lifelong resident of Mobberley, whose ancestors owned the land on which the Rajar was built.