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What's New O Que Ha de Novo? Visita Apresentacao. Note: All pages available on the site can be accessed from here. 24th June 2008: Something different. You can now link to my new personal website at 'Goldenthread'. This contains, among other things, an account of the Choquelimpie mine - which was the highest gold and silver mine in the world. 2nd June 2008: My wife and I recently returned from a visit to the Plymouth and Bristol area. Joseph Dunkerley was in Plymouth in the militia from December 1804 to early in 1807; he may have been stationed in the old fort known as the 'Royal Citadel' see photo alongside and also at http://www.ecastles.co.uk/citadel.html) . On 27th July 1809 he married Hannah Spencer in St. Paul's church, Bristol. St. Pauls exists still (see photo) but is not now used for regular worship. We also visited Companies House in Cardiff and obtained microfiche records for St. George's Engineers Ltd., where my father worked for many years, and were thrilled to find his signature and hand-writing on some of the records. I shall be updating the article on St. George's quite soon, to incorporate the new data and some other information that I am in the process of acquiring. 21st April 2008: You've got to like this! I've got a swish new Index Map from Google, and once you're on to it you can convert to satellite view or terrain view, move around anywhere you like within it and zoom in or out for no extra charge. Neat huh? 9th April 2008: I have added a short history of St George's Engineers Ltd. (including an account of the scandalous 'Mary Dugdale affair'). St George's was the firm where my father, Leslie Dunkerley, worked for the whole of his married life until retirement, and which therefore provided every penny of income on which I was brought up from birth until I achieved financial independence in 1969. Thank you St George's! Thank you JLD! I hope to consult the company records at Companies House in Cardiff later this year, after which I should be able to add to the tale. 5th April 2008: Following some additional research into the descendents of Joseph Dunkerley and Hannah Spencer who left England for America in the 19th century, I have transferred the story of Mary Ann Dunkerley and John Gregory to a new section of the Dunkerley Area of the site, entitled 'The Mormon Connection'. Two new stories have been added to this section, one about the life of Harr iet Dunkerley, who married four times, gave rise to three Mormon families and visited America, the second contributed by Howard Christenson of Utah about the daughter of Harriet Dunkerley, Harriet Higham and her husband Joseph Ball Higham. I have now added some illustrations. 20th March 2008: I have added a number of photos to the Brazil Area of the site (and also see right). 7th March 2008: During a visit to Brazil my wife and I have discovered the whereabouts of my mother-in-law's civil birth and church marriage registrations in Goias Velho. The former has provided us with the names of her paternal grandparents - previously unknown - and we have also been able to collect additional data on the Brazilian family from personal contacts and other sources. I have therefore taken the opportunity to upgrade the Brazil Area of the site, adding a new introductory page ('Apresentacao') - in Portuguese - and to add a fourth family tree (for Jose Pereira) to the three family trees previously available there. 29th January 2008: I have added fifteen new Lancashire Dialect Poems! See numbers 36 to 50 here. 16th January 2008: I have re-built the section on Lancashire dialect (now called 'Lancashire Dialect Area') and added new external links to the article on the development of Lancashire dialect, to make it easier to use. I have also continued to receive contacts via the internet from new descendents of the astonishing Eves family. Not only were the Eves a fecund lot but they also appear to have a genetic predisposition to an interest in family history! 12th January 2008: I have added a poem about Sholver Slack - 'Home Ground' for my branch of the Dunkerley family 8th January 2008: I have been contacted, through this site, by a descendent of Thomas Eves and Matilda Cook who now lived in northeast England. It appears that Thomas Eves was one of five brothers who were all gamekeepers in Norfolk, and they also had a sister. At least two of the families moved via Cheshire to the Rochdale area - an interesting story indeed. You can read part of this story on the relevant part of my site here. I have also been contacted by another descendent of the Eves, this time of Oscar Eves who was killed in the First World War. Finally, a descendent of James (b. abt. 1833) and Elizabeth Knott has been in touch. It is good to know that my website is proving interesting, and fascinating to see how people are able to discover it and access the information. Thanks to those who have got in touch! 27th December 2007: Following a contact to this site, I have been able to add additional information to section about Isabella Tuson in the 'Richard Tuson of Brindle' article. I am also able to add a photo of Isabella and her husband, James Margrove, taken on the occasion of their golden wedding on 15th September 1930. 19th December 2007: An article I submitted to the The Manchester & Lancashire Family History Society, entitled 'Joseph Dunkerley in the Militia', has now been published. If you are working with family history in Lancashire you might want to consider joining the society. Their website is at http://www.mlfhs.org.uk/. 27th November 2007: I have been lucky enough to make three breakthroughs with regard to The Sykes Family. First, I was kindly sent photos and stories about Frances by her grandaughter, and have updated that section of the site. Second, at the request of an uncle, I made considerable efforts to discover what had happened to Jim and Sydney Sykes since the 1920s when the three enjoyed playing together. This resulted in the extraordinary pleasure of speaking to Sydney and his wife on the 'phone. Unfortunately Jim died some years ago. Third, as a result of information received from Sydney I have also been able to talk to a niece, the daughter of his youngest brother, Bob Sykes, also deceased. I hope to receive further information from these new contacts about this part of the family in due course. 11th November: I made the discovery that an Aunt, Muriel Knott, descends from John William Dunkerley and Harriet Eliza Riches (see next story below), but like Caroline, one of the children of George and Sophia Spalding, she also descends from the Eves family of Norfolk. I have, by now, established that migration from Norfolk to the Lancashire cotton towns was by no means uncommon in the 19th century. To understand the coincidence of the Dunkerley/Eves connections you'll need to read the two stories - here and here. 3rd November 2007: I am very pleased to have been contacted by living relatives of Sophia  Dunkerley and George Spalding. Sophia descends from John William Dunkerley and Harriet Eliza Riches. There are two articles on the site that you can read here and here. 25th October 2007: I have added an article on the Riches family who, rather surprisingly, moved from the rural area of north Norfolk to the cotton towns of Lancashire at some time between 1866 and 1871. It turns out that such moves may have been quite common at the time, and perhaps were even organized by mill owners in an attempt to obtain adequate supplies of labour. Harriet Eliza Riches later married John William Dunkerley, the original stimulus of my curiosity. 24th October 2007: Just had a great weekend visiting living relatives of the Martin/Topping family that I discovered through my family history research. We had a lovely lunch together at the Black Ladd Inn near Grange Bar, Oldham. I was delighted to find that I have some attractive second cousins and we have been able to swap photos, anecdotes and other information. On a different subject, I have also taken out a six-month subscription to 'findmypast.com', which is proving useful in giving access to birth, marriage and death indices not yet covered by FreeBMD, and access to searchable census records for 1851, 1871, 1881 and 1891. 4th October 2007: I've added the story of Lewis Dunkerley, my uncle, who was the Group Scout Master of the 7th Manchester (St. John's, Failsworth) scouts. Also I've given you the chance to read one of Tommy Thompson's entertaining stories, 'The Convert', which gives an insight into why the Lancashire dialect is now a rare currency. 27th September 2007: I've been a busy bee! Some time ago my aunt, Brenda Dunkerley, kindly gave me an indenture for a clogger's apprentice dating from 1858. Following some research I found out that it related to my uncle Bob Stott's grandfather, Benjamin Stott, who established a clogging business in Failsworth. I have now added a short article with the racy title 'Stotts the Cloggers - No Fornication Allowed' to cover the indenture and the Stotts' contribution to the paediatric well-being (and morality) of Failsworth folk of yesteryear. I have also been informed that an article entitled 'Joseph Dunkerley in the Militia' will be published in 'The Manchester Genealogist'. Don't know when, but fame at last! I'll add the article to the site upon publication. Bet you can't wait. 25th September 2007: I've just returned from a short holiday that included two visits relevant to this website. The first was to Languard Fort near Felixstowe in Suffolk, where Joseph Dunkerley was stationed with the militia in 1803. The second was to Buxton in Norfolk, where Hannah Eliza Riches and her family originated. They later moved, en masse, to Oldham where Hannah Eliza married John William Dunkerley. On my return from the holiday I was pleased to find a couple of very complimentary e-mails from people who have enjoyed the site, or found it useful. This has motivated me to add a 'Feedback' page where I can display such comments. Please excuse my conceit, but it is nice to read that one's efforts have helped someone, and encourages me to keep the site moving. 14th September 2007: It's been a very busy week - only partly of my own making. I've had two family-tree contacts from the United States who had seen this web site and realized their families link in. They represented two of the three separate branches that migrated to the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, and I am now in touch with half a dozen or so American cousins. I have now learned that each of the three migrations - all descendents of Joseph Dunkerley and Hannah Spencer - went to the US as Mormons. One of my recent contacts is still a Mormon and recently spent a year, with his wife, working in Salt Lake City at the family record facilities there. He has provided me with additional family tree information and a couple of old photos. Not to be outdone by the Dunkerleys, I was delighted to receive an e-mail from the Tuson relative mentioned on 7th September. He is a descendent of Richard Tuson (1842-1896), a brother of my great grandfather William Tuson, a line of which I had very little knowledge. This has been followed by an exchange of e-mails and then an absorbing one-hour 'phone call (who says blokes don't chat?). We're now into swapping information and hope to meet up before too long. I've also obtained wills for William Tuson and his son, my grandfather, Dick Tuson, and these two have added several new facts - including proof of the contact maintained between the siblings of William's generation and the central role that the Bay Horse Hotel at Whittle-le-Woods played as a meeting point. I have updated the Richard Tuson Family Tree to reflect recent additions. Finally, I have just received written information from a living cousin of the Martin family - my paternal grandmother's family. Posting reports on the internet has proven very rewarding and I hope for additional contacts. 7th Septemer 2007: I am very pleased to have had an e-mail contact, from a living Tuson descendent of Richard Tuson, sometime tailor of Tuson Row in Hutton, and later farmer at Brindle. I am awaiting details about precisely how he links in to the family. I have had a similar contact from another living relative in San Francisco, a descendent of Mary Ann Dunkerley and John Gregory. He read the account of their emigration to the United States as Mormons and subsequent treks by waggon train to Utah and thence California. A web-site has given me access to photos of Harriet Augusta Gregory and her family. I have also now included an article in the 'Tuson Area' about the Sykes family of Saddleworth. Research for this has revealed that the wives of brothers Robert Buckley Sykes and Edward Thomas Sykes, both from Wem in Shropshire, were actually cousins. 2nd August 2007: Today I have uploaded my account of my great grandfather William Tuson. He was brought up on his father's farm at Brindle, but when his father died William trained as a clogger. His first wife died after a year but William remarried quickly, to Annie Edmondson, with whom he had three boys. William and Annie moved to Failsworth where William set himself up in business, shortly after which Annie died. Nothing daunted the clogger decided to 'clog again' and married Mary Schofield of Failsworth. Together they brought up the three boys and devleoped the business. William's youngest son emigrated to New Zealand in 1912 but returned as an army volunteer and died in France. The other two boys, Dick and Harry, produced seven grandchildren between them, descendents of whom live mostly still in Lancashire. 27th July 2007: I have placed a new Tuson article on the site, covering the lives of Richard Tuson and Betty Wilding, my great-great grandparents. They were of farming stock and produced a numerous family. Richard moved from Hutton to Brindle - in what could be interpreted as the first move of my Tuson forebears away from the Penwortham/Longton area towards Failsworth and Hollinwood. I have also added another family tree to provide more information on some of the descendents of Richard's children. I now plan to turn to Richard's son, William Tuson, who actually made the move to Failsworth. He became a master clogger and shoe and boot repairer. 14th July 2007: I have been busy absorbing new information collected on a recent trip to Oldham and the Preston area. The highlight from Oldham was the discovery in an ancient photo album belonging to Peter Brocklehurst of a photo of my grandparents, Billy and Selina Dunkerley, taken soon after their wedding on 1st January 1901. Readers may be aware that half of this photo, showing Billy only, was previously on  the site, but that it had been mysteriously cut, vertically, in half. While visiting Peter and leafing through his album, that contains many old photos of unidentified people, I gasped as this one appeared. The missing person is in fact Billy's wife, my grandmother 'Nana' (Selina) Dunkerley, nee Martin. I took a digital photo of the one in the album and the quality is good enough to detect that Selina is wearing her wedding ring. However she seems to have the figure of a woman who has not yet had children, so the photo was probably taken within a month or two of her wedding. The photo was a thrilling discovery and my thanks are due to Peter - a relative whose existence I only discovered about three years ago as a result of my resarches into family history. During the visit to Oldham it has also proven possible to identify the subject of a very old photo that was amongst the belongings of my uncle, Clare Dunkerley, kindly given to me by my Auntie Brenda. The photo is shown alongside and, following consultations with my cousin Jean, seems certain to be Alice Whitehead Martin (or Martyn), nee Faith, born about 1846, died probably in the 1920s. The 'Roy' named on the photo was Roy Topping, Alice's grandson, cousin of Clare. According to my cousin Jean, Roy did photographic work in Oldham and probably produced the photo himself and dedicated it to his grandmother. Alice was also the mother of Selina and therefore my great grandmother. In the Preston area I was able to visit Dinkley, supposed to be the hamlet that gave origin to the name 'Dunkerley' (although what evidence has been presented seems completely unconvincing to me). Nevertheless it is a pretty place on the south bank of the River Ribble, about three miles upstream of Ribchester. Of more certain interest were the tithe maps of Hutton and Longton, and their accompanying schedules, that my wife and I were able to briefly examine in the County Record Office in Preston. Since my return I have enjoyed reading Alan Crosby's account of Hutton 'Hutton: A Millennium History', and have incorporated some of his ideas and the evidence of the tithe maps into my first two Tuson articles (Tuson Origins and James Tuson of Longton). I am also making progress on the next Tuson article, which I hope to put on the site by the end of this month. On a different note, I am pleased with myself for having reached a total of 50,000 records submitted to the FreeBMD project, which I do as a voluneer. If anyone else would like to take part, it's quite enjoyable and a way of 'putting something back' into what I have found to be an enourmously useful family history resource. Go to the site by clicking on the highlighted link, where you can volunteer, or contact me and I will put you in touch with my syndicate co-ordinator. |
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