My Leigh family emigrated to Preston, Lancashire from Dublin, Ireland. The whole kit and kabootle of them.

My great-grandfather John Leigh (a farmer and brickburner) and his wife Mary Ann Nugent brought the entire family from South Dublin including older grown up chldren and young children and infants.

John's daughter Esther Mary (born 1878 in Ballybawn, near Dublin) apparently came over in 1901 and was working as a domestic servant for the Ashe family along with her sister Catherine in Moss, Greenheys. Esther Mary was later introduced to William George O"Melia, a boot cleaner at the Victoria Hotel, possibly by her sister Sarah, who was also working at the hotel as a domestic. William and Esther married in 1908 and emigrated to the US in 1912. Esther had a daughter Margaret Mary on the boat with her. Esther's father-in-law, John O'Melia, was a retired British Army soldier who held the rank of Colour Sargeant Major in the 1901-1905 South African Boer War and was stationed throughout Ireland between the 1880 and 1896. His army records, all 23 pages of them, were found on the Military pages of Ancestry.com. Related families include the Higgins families of Washington DC, and St. Petersburg Florida and the O'Melia family of Los Angeles and Preston.

Daughter Catherine Leigh (Sister Mary Ann) (also born in Ballybawn), after her job with her sister went on to become a nun with the Carmelite order at the Presentation Convent in Preston. She served the order for over 50 years at a convent in India, eventually retiring back to Preston in the early 70's.

Daughter Margaret Mary Leigh was born in Ireland and moved to Preston as well. Unfortunately she died in 1916 at age 26, so very liitle is known of her.

Daughter Sarah "Sally" Leigh met a bachelor cab driver named Frederick C. Clitheroe and married him in 1907. She had 2 daughters, Kathleen Elizabeth and Henrietta, and a son Harry. Kathleen grew up and eventually married William Wilcock and had two sons Derek and Arnold. Derek was born in Preston, Arnold was born in Yonkers NY after the family emigrated to the US in the 1920's. Henrietta (named after her grandfather Henry Clitheroe) only lived to age 2. She was buried with grandmother Mary Ann Leigh in the Fernyhalgh Cemetery of St. Mary's according to the inscription on their headstone. Harry remained in Preston, I have very little information on him and his family. Derek and Arnold's families are alive and well here in the US. Related families include the Clitheroes of Preston, and the Wilcock families of Yonkers, NY, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Anaheim, CA.

Daughter Mary Leigh married Harry Johnson, a bricklayer, possibly in Ireland. She and harry emigrated to the Yonkers, NY between 1900 and 1910 and eventualy settled in Tampa, Florida in 1930. She had no children. I have no infomation on Harry Johnson, other than he drowned in Tampa Florida.
Daughter Elizabeth Leigh (Sister Gerrard) also went on to become a nun with the Carmelite order at the Presentation Convent in Preston. She died in 1916 of TB, possibly from caring for her mother Mary Ann who also died of TB in 1913.
Son Denis Leigh met and married Margaret Flanagan and they had 4 sons and a daughter. Denis' son Denis Frederick emigrated to the US and eventually went on to serve with the US Army in WW2 as a medic, collecting a bronze star at the Battle of the Bulge with the 101st. Sons William and Edward and Thomas also served in WW2. William and Edward returned to Preston. Thomas died in Burma.

Daughter Mary "May" was a nurse in the maternity ward of the Balckburn Hospital. She eventually married and had 3 daughters, Sheila, Rachael, and Denise. I have no idea what May's married name was. Seems last names were not important on family correspondence. Any Leigh relatives fo Preston, please contact me.

Son William John met and married Mary "May" Smith of Preston;they had a daughter named Sheila. According to William's letters, he was was in WW1 with a artillery battalion, and later promoted to Warrant Officer. Prior to the war, he was enrolled in the English Martyr's school where he majored in French language. He reportedly won a prize for his French langauge skillls which won him a dinner with the Lord Mayor of London around 1910. William and May moved around a bit, including Belfast in the 1930's, but, eventually settled in Fulwood where he ran a stationary store at 209 Watling Street. The shop was also the sub-post office for the Fulwod Barracks area. He was so busy working 6-1/2 days per week that he enlisted the aid of his brother Alexander Leigh and his wife Annie Smith to come back to Preston from the United States to help him. Bill and May's daughter Sheila married a George Cookson (non-RC) around the 1970's and was married for approximately 20 years. George suffered heart attack in 1987 and died of brain tumor im 1989. Sheila later moved from Preston to "The Boathouse" in Pwhelli, Llanbedrog, North Wales. She died in 2003 and is reportedly buried with her mother at the Fernyhalgh Cemetary. Any Cookson relatives, please contact me.

Son John Leigh, I have very little information on, other than his nickname was Jack and that he may have been in the Royal Engineers in WW1.

Son Alexander Leigh (my grandfather) was born in Dublin and came to Preston between 1901 and 1906. Around 1911, his mother contracted TB, and in an effort to keep the young kids from being exposed, they were sent away to live with relatives. In 1911 at age 10, Alex emigrated to the US to live with his sister Mary (nee Leigh) Johnson and her husband in Yonkers, NY. His sister Ellen "Nellie" may have been sent away to live with relatives in Bray, Ireland. At the outbreak of WW1, Alex ran away to Canada in 1916 and joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Regina, Saskatchewan, (pretty amazing amount of traveling for a 16 year old). His enlistment papers which I found on Ancestry.com shows that he lied about his age to get in; however, when questioned by the Adjudant Officer, he was later given the opportunity to change his statement. The CEF placed a note on his papers thta he was not to be sent to Europe until he reached age 19. So he served as a bicycle messenger for the CEF....

After the war, Alex worked with the Canadian Railway as an office clerk, then trains to become a wireless telegrapher with the Marconi Wireless Company in Montreal. He later ships out on merchant freighters and tankers bound for NY and the Carribean as a young Radio Officer according to his Ellis Island immigration manifests. He later returns to Preston in the 1920's and meets Annie Smith, the younger sister of Mary Smith who is married to his brother William. Alex returns to the US and starts working in a carpet factory in Yonkers, NY. Annie also emigrates to the US in the 1920's for work ad eventually marries Alex here in the US in Yonkers. Alex's sister Mary is the Maid of Honor and her husband Harry is the Best Man. Life goes on and Alex and Annie visit with brother William and wife May in Belfast after the birth of their daughter Sheila.....

Alex and Annie eventually return to the US, however, in 1936, upon hearing that brother William is sick and he needs help with his new post office business in Preston, Alex sells his house in Yonkers and returns with Annie to Preston to help out. It is during this period that my father is born while they lived in the apartment over the post office on Watling Street. Alex and Annie eventually move back to the US with their new son Patrick, and a nephew Derek Wilcock in 1937. Derek was staying with his grandmother Sally (nee Leigh) Clitheroe for the summer.....

Alex and Annie stayed in the US for the next 50 years (Alex died in 1977). Annie returned to Preston in 1989 (at age 87) for the Guild Fair events, she made the LEP papers, a Steven Smith was the reporter at the time. Annie finally passed on in 1997 (at age 95).

John Leigh also had another daughter Ellen Leigh (possibly born after 1901 in Preston). Alex's army records found on Ancestry.com identify her as living at the family house at 35 Cobden Street, Preston. When Ellen's mother Mary Ann passed on, Ellen's name was on her mother's GRO death record, still living at 35 Cobden Street. What happened to this street, I cannot find any records for it after the 1901 census. It is possible that Ellen "Nellie" married John Bonney, (son of Bernard Bonney) later in life (in her 70's), where her address was listed as Botany Brow. Any related Bonneys, please contact me.

My brickwalls relate to my family name are also the same as Preston Lancashire town names. There is a lot of history here.

I would like to say thank you for the information regarding Sally and her husband Fred. My great-Grandmother was Fred's sister, Ellen. To date I don't have much information about the Clitheroe family, but can tell you that Ellen married John William Evans and they had one son, also called John but known as Jack, and a daughter who died whilst still a baby. Jack married Evelyn May Rose from Kirkham and they had 2 boys and 1 girl. My father lives in Cornwall, but the rest of the family are still in Preston.

Thank you again
Gwenda Evans
Plymouth, Devon

Hi gwenda,

A slightly belated welcome to you, and thank you for posting this information about the Leigh family of Preston. It's always great to see when cousins find each other!! I thought Helixlinks might have been back here by now, but I don't think he's been in since you posted - so possibly doesn't know about this yet. Unless of course you've been in contact with each other off-site. Either way, I'm sure he'll be back eventually.

Whilst I'm in this topic - thought would add these nice Preston pics I recently added to one of the Smith List pages, with another member's Preston interests:

Snippets from Watercolours of
Victorian Preston by Edward Beattie.

Preston Market Place in 1840
(though painted at a later date)


St Johns Parish Church, Preston

Watercolour by Edward Beattie, 1857

>> images above are from the Victorian collection at the website of St.Wilfrids Catholic Church, Preston>>

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Hope to chat again Gwenda.

Carole