Magazine


Rachel goes back to her roots

by Rachel Broady
5/ 5/2005

I'M obscenely proud of being a Mancunian. I have lived all over the country and on the other side of the world and always taken great pride in hearing outsiders ask about our city with genuine enthusiasm.

However, I'm not so proud of having been born in Droylsden. I apologise to any Droylsden residents now reading their favourite newspaper in south Manchester, but there's something about the place that gives me the creeps. I've fantasised about cutting out generations, as it were, and proving that my Mancunian roots are just that and not, as many a Scouser has suggested, the mere history of a woolly back.

With this in mind I approached the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society and asked them if they could help prove my heritage or, as I feared, out me as a plastic Mancunian with as strong a connection to the city as Cilla Black.

The society began in 1964 and is dependent upon volunteers who seem to like nothing more than searching through archives, censuses, old books, documents and birth, marriage and death certificates to find out who's who. Many - such as Joyce Leech and John Marsden who helped me - started by tracing their own family and found the pursuit so enjoyable they decided to help others.

Tracing family trees is something of a national obsession thanks to programmes like Who Do You Think You Are so the volunteers are inundated with requests that keep them busy. Sometimes the journey into the past starts with a lot of information, sometimes with a little and because we live in times where families don't know their history the way they used to, I didn't even know the names of my great-great grandparents. In fact, after a brief website search the only information I had to provide was the names of my great-grandparents on my mother's side, James and Rosetta Spellman, and the knowledge that James died in the First World War. I hadn't given the volunteers much to go on but their enthusiasm didn't waver and they went off in search of my roots as excitedly as I search for shoes on ebay. The Society boasts a well-equipped library and much source information as well as a wealth of experience.

The first thing they decided to do was trace my great-grandmother Rosetta's birth certificate, which gave her maiden name as Burgess and her birthplace as Manchester. This, they say, is a good place to start because it gives essential basic information to build the roots of the family tree.

Rosetta was a maker-up of fents in an Ancoats cotton mill. So far, so Mancunian. Her wedding certificate showed she wed James, a lapper at a cotton mill, at St Andrew's Church, Ancoats, and a further search showed her parents, James (a steam engine minder) and Fanny, lived at New Cross, Manchester. Well, my Mancunian swagger was getting bolder by the minute.

That is until further records showed that the family repeatedly fibbed about where they were from and, depending on which form they were signing, they were from Burnley, Rawtenstall and Manchester. This was, apparently, because families who found themselves out of work could be separated and forced to go back to the parish they were from. I forgave them this and moved on.

Then we struck gold, as far as I'm concerned. Rosetta's parents were found in the 1871 census living at 4 Britain Street in the Oxford Road area of Manchester known as Little Ireland. It is the area Engels wrote about in Conditions of the Working Class in England published later in 1887. Further searches showed that my great-great grandfather James (also known as Michael or Francis, depending on his mood) was probably from Ireland and moved to Manchester where he met his wife Frances Burgess neé Robinson who was probably from Manchester...but could be from Liverpool.

Ignoring that slight chink in the Mancunian armour I found myself quite emotional about the whole thing.

I was moved by photographs the society had unearthed of where my family lived. I felt sad on hearing that my great-grandfather's father, also called James, died aged 75 in Crumpsall Workhouse having worked until close to death as a dyer's labourer.

I was touched when told that his son James has the sad honour of having a marked grave at St Vaast Post Military Cemetery in Richebourg-L'Avoue and when handed a photo of his regiment knowing his face was in the line-up.

These were people I have never met and heard little or nothing about and yet I felt a warmth towards them and a concern for their welfare.

But I was cheered by knowing that now, when I'm bragging about my Mancunian heritage, I am referring to real people whose lives I have been able to look at thanks to the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.

For further information call 0161 236 9750 or email office@mlfhs.co.uk


Have your say
 
Have your say Got an opinion you want to share?
Register now and have your comments heard.

Register now


 
External links
 
Personal Finance
 

Customers with a 'good' credit profile
Company Typical APR
Platinum Exclusive Loan 7.8%
Bank of Scotland (Semi-exclusive) 8.6%
Halifax (Semi-exclusive) 8.6%
Alliance & Leicester 8.7%
Lloyds TSB 8.9%
HASH(0x2abf53d7abe0)
Provider AER*
ICICI BANK
HiSAVE Savings Account 		5.50%
PRINCIPALITY BS
e-SAVER 		5.35%
ANGLO IRISH BANK
Easy Access Account Issue 2 		5.25%
FIRST DIRECT
Everyday e-Saver 		2.75%
ALLIANCE & LEICESTER
Online Tracker 		4.75%
BRADFORD & BINGLEY
eSavings 6 		4.60%
SAINSBURYS FINANCE
Internet Saver 		4.00%
ALLIANCE & LEICESTER
eSaver - Issue 2 		5.00%
POST OFFICE
Instant Saver 		3.75%
Fees may apply