Here’s a plot marker whose initials helped us find its owner, although its placement is curious, being found in between two 1869 graves. We suspect we know why though – more on that at the end. Mary Elizabeth Vaughan was born around 1865. Mary is actually one of the biggest mysteries we have here in …
Another plot marker for a small child. This time it’s Willie Dawson of 41 Garibaldi Street, who died a year old and was buried here on October 22nd 1877. Or is it? Willie was born on December 2nd 1875 at the house on Garibaldi Street to Lord and Sarah Hannah (Mitchell) Dawson. Lord was a …
This set of sidestones is a frustrating one, because not only have William and Andrew’s stones been separated but Clarissa’s stone has also gone missing between the 1980s and now. Clarissa was buried here with both her husbands, two very different men in many ways. William Howarth was born in 1849 in Sowerby Bridge. His …
Read more “46.62 – William Howarth and Andrew and Clarissa Russell”
The Cardwells and Parkinsons are a good example of how migration from Lancashire to Todmorden had begun long before the Fieldens had become a powerful economic concern, and of the circuitous routes it could take! Thomas Parkinson was born in 1813 in Preston. Thomas’s father William was a weaver. A few decades earlier Thomas would …
Read more “53.60 – Thomas and Alice Parkinson, and Margaret and James Cardwell”
It happens often that members of the same generation of a family can be buried in opposite ends of the graveyard, and sometimes even in drastically different style of grave. George Richard Morris’s father, George Samuel Morris, only has a small plot marker with his initials on it. George and his wife Alice Ann (Hiley) …
The common experience for most FOCCers is that on your first or second visit, something catches your eye. Passively, of course, but maybe…well, if you believe in something else, you might think something actively caught your eye, but that’s a digression. For our Secretary it was Grace Bell. For our Chair it was Sarah Taylor. …
George here was another transplant from Staffordshire who came here for work with his family. He met a wet end whose circumstances were sadly very predictable. George Samuel Morris, or Samuel as he would choose to be known and to call himself, was born in 1820 in Monk Upton in Shropshire. His movements prior to …
Initially thought to read “J. McC.”, this plot marker is actually J. McG. – and that opened the door to John’s story, that of a young man who died early after a very mixed set of life experiences. From a troubled household to sporting fame, this is his story. John McGrail was born in Leeds …
This little plot marker has two sets of initials, and so far we only know the first set’s owner. The owner is, like so many others here buried under small plot markers, only a small child. Her story is brief. Mary Ann Tootill was born on August 1st 1875 to William and Ellen (Brindle) Tootill. …
This grave starts with the story of two offcumden, although the origins of one remains a mystery. Edward Callan, or Collon, was born in 1826 in Bristol. His father’s name was John and was a painter. And that’s all we know. No baptism or census return for an Edward Callan or any such similar spelling …