Smiths of Earby and Thornton in Craven (82-CAI)

Subject: Smiths of Earby and Thornton in Craven (82-CAI) Mon 8 Jan 2007 - 9:40

I am trying to find the parents of John Smith who married in 1822 in Thornton in Craven to Ann Walbank of Cowling. He was a weaver living in Earby at the time of his marriage. I have three possible sets of parents; Henry and Mary Bullock, Joseph and Alice Foulds or James and Alice Brown.
Caimein

3-star-status Member Posts: 3409 Joined: 2006-11-09

Welcome to the Smith Chat Forums Caimein,

[ I am not certain but I think that in the 1800's
Thornton in Craven was in Lancashire case .... < snip >
Edit - no - always in WR Yorks, Carole ]

I have used Yorkshire Indexers and they are...........
http://www.yorkshireindexers.co.uk again worth a look at.
Good Luck and A Happy New Year

mattycat

Thank you for the information. I will check both sites. I have looked at the Thornton in Craven registers.
Cheers Caimein

mattycat wrote:

Caimen,
You are very welcome and if we can help in any way we will.

maxine wrote:

DO you know where he was born?
Also now you have these details you can order on line their marriage certificate which will give you his fathers name and his age at marriage..
Maxine

Dear Maxine, I have a copy of the church entry of his marriage. He was living in Earby at the time. There are three John Smith's born in the parish that could be him. As his marriage was before 1837 where would I apply for a certificate? I have only ordered certifiactes for the later period.
Cheers Caimein

mattycat wrote:

Hi Caimen,
Unfortunately you won't be able to get a mariage certificate if it was pre-1837 that is when the General Registeration started but for information before that we have only Parish Records..................Good luck

Dear Mattycat,
The main church is St Mary's, Thornton in Craven. I have their marriage in 1822.John was a weaver from Earby and Ann was from Cowling. Their children were baptised at the Baptist church in Earby which opened in 1819. The family moved from Earby to Kelbrook, then back to Earby by 1837 and finally to Skipton. There are three entries in the Thornton in Craven records which could be John's baptism. I don't know how to find out which one is more likely.
Caimein

mattycat wrote:

..............a web site for Earby with photo's as well ...... and All Saints Earby ...
http://www.pendle.net/Earby ..........

There are a number of Smith families in the Thornton in Craven registers. I have the IGI printout for all the Smith families and have taken notes of all the Smiths from the film which I viewed. The Earby Historical Society sent me the baptisms of John and Anne's children at the Baptist church however I haven't viewed the film itself.

The possible parents of John are:
James Smith and Alice Brown married in 1786 ( from Earby)
s John born April 1794

Joseph and Alice Foulds married in 1794 ( from Kelbrook)
Son born August 1799

Henry and Mary Bullock (from Harden)
Son John born 1795

I think it is more likely to be James and Alice or Joseph and Alice.
John and Anne had children Joseph and Alice but not a James. Also John and Ann moved from Earby to Kelbrook around 1827. However the James and Alice entry is closer to John's birth date if the 1841 census is to be believed.
Caimein

3-star-status Member Posts: 3409 Joined: 2006-11-09

Caimen,

You have done qite a bit of research into this family and this is certaintly a brick wall! It would be so easy to go down the wrong path. Have you found James and Alice on the 1851 census? as you say their ages on the 41 are always suspect as they rounded up or down ages by five years.

Sorry not to have been more help.

mattycat

Dear Mattycat,
Thank you for your interest. I'll check the census when I get time to go tt the local Family History centre.
My only other clue to the parents is that a Robert Brown was a witness at John and Ann's wedding. Alice Brown was James' wife.
Caimein

3-star-status Member Posts: 3409 Joined: 2006-11-09

Caimen,

That looks like Alice Brown may have been John Smith's Mother . I have found family members often witnessed a marriage.

mattycat

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Smith, Nuttall, Ingham,McDermott and more

so near and yet so far

It could be so. However John and Ann didn't name any of their sons James but named one son Joseph.
Caimein

mattycat wrote:

Caimen .. the plot thickens.

I have just received the death certificate of John Smith. He was found drowned on 2nd April 1860. There was an inquest the next day conducted by Thomas Brown the coroner for Yorkshire. Does anyone know how to order a copy of the inquest and find any newspaper reports?
Thanks Caimein

Hi Caimein,

Does the death certificate say in which town John died? was it Earby? If we know that - we can then check where the local newspaper archive microfilms are held for the town.

Any documents concerning the inquest will likely be held at West Yorkshire Record Office....... Go to this site, where you should find more information, and/or a contact link........... >>> West Yorkshire Archives Service >>>

Check for other Yorkshire/W.R.Yorkshire links in our>> Links Cabinet >>
There might just be something else in there worth exploring - eg: the local family history society for your Smiths' area.

Please keep us informed Caimein & then can check up on where best to look for the newspaper inquest report.

Carole

PS; Hope you had a lovely day on Friday :ck-wink: >> Happy Birthday Caimein >>

Dear Carole, The certificate does not say where he was found. He was living at Woodman Terrace, Skipton at the time of his death. He was a twister at a cotton factory. John was buried at Thornton in Craven.
I will try some of the links and also contact Skipton LIbrary.
Thanks for the birthday wishes.
Caimein

Unfortunately inquests in the Skipton area prior to 1880 have not survived and there were no reports in the local newspapers.
Caimein

Hi Caimein,

Oh no!! How disappointing! I'd been intending to write to you on here soon, to ask if you'd had any luck with it yet. Well - I'm sure you must have explored all avenues for these records before you reported that they're not likely ever to be found. What a pity.

I'm thinking I must put together some information from the West Yorkshire Archives about what inquests records/dates have or have not survived, and post a Topic about it on this Board.

You would have thought that there would be at least a little report in the local newspaper at the time he drowned wouldn't you? For interest - do Skipton Library hold the Newspaper microfilms for that date, and if so, did they do a search for you of the dates following 2nd April?

In any case, thanks very much for keeping us informed Caimein.

Chat again soon,

Carole