This is the story of the family of Young Helliwell, the founder of “Young Helliwell and Sons”, the picker manufacturer company based at Gauxholme. The “and Sons” part of the company name nearly didn’t happen; four of his six sons are buried here, along with his first wife and one of his two daughters. Hannah …
Read more “53.59 – Hannah, Charles, Ernest, Elizabeth, William and Frank Helliwell”
This plot marker has more than just initials, it has the plot owner’s name – W. Scholfield – on it. Detective work identified the person buried here as Ann Scholfield, who was buried here on December 19th 1885 at the age of 35. She was the wife of William Scholfield of Hanging Ditch, and she …
Ada rests here between two Nothard family graves, but she’s no relation; not that we know of, anyway. Ada Stephenson was illegitimate, and her mother Hannah never pursued the unknown father in court, so his name never appears in any other public record. Frustratingly the digital scans for both Ada’s birth and death make it …
A family of Js? Not an affectation, just a coincidence that the children buried here all share the same first initial as their father. Jeremiah Crossley was born in 1791, most likely in Halifax, the son of a Northowram ropetwister. He grew up to become an iron moulder and made his way down the valley …
Read more “39.5 – Jim, Jim, Judy, John and Jeremiah Crossley”
This little plot marker required paging through scans to find, since the older burial registers are often written out in ways that cause problems for Ancestry’s scan-to-text software. I found M.A. in the end – Mary Alty of Knowlwood, the daughter of Robert and Ruth, buried on July 28th 1842 aged 20 weeks old. Mary …
Thomas’s plot marker, with its little star, is one of the smaller markers that denotes an adult burial rather than a child’s. So what was Thomas up to? Thomas Taylor was born in 1803 to Ralph and Sarah Taylor of Walsden. He was baptised at St. Mary’s in August of that year. Ralph was a …
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”