The use of surnames as first names means you might have to pay attention to this one! Betty Greenbank, the grandmother on this stone, was born Betty Barker in October 1805 to John and Hannah Barker of Stansfield. She married John Greenbank at St. Chad’s in Rochdale in September 1823. She might have been John’s …
Read more “47.52 – Betty and Elizabeth Greenbank, and Sarah and Greenbank Law”
In front of the big angel is a smaller angel…there are a surprisingly small number of angels in the graveyard, in fact to this researcher’s mind there may only be three or maybe four. Let’s look at this one; a smaller angel watching over a mother and daughter grave. Lily Parker was born in 1877 …
These two sidestones were the first to get this treatment – a new way of trying to keep loose sidestones together while also not making life difficult for those who keep the lawn trimmed here. John and Ellen (Byrne) Partlin were Irish immigrants who met and married in Haslingden in 1870 at the Catholic church …
A grand grave for a family who weren’t wealthy – who were the Laws? James Law was born in Todmorden in 1845. Ellen Sutcliffe, his wife to be, had been born the previous year and in the same place. Both of their fathers were overlookers in local mills, and when they married in 1867 James …
Read more “V4.12 – James, Ellen and Walter Law, and Sarah Ellen Magson”
The beautiful grave of Mary Hannah (Crabtree) Law, born in 1868 and passing away just before New Year’s in 1915 at the age of 47. From June 2023: “Mary lived at the Shepherds Rest Inn with her husband, John Arthur Law and helped her sister Betsy to run the pub whilst Betsy and her husband …
The age old question – why bother doing what we’re doing? We’re so sick of it! Let us give you an example of why. Andrew and Elizabeth Dodd are in what is now, on our new transcript for the school extension graves, row 1 plot 5. It’s the last one before the wall adjoining the …
This grave is in our “unmarked” section of the transcript because it lacks “proper” stones of any kind – when we got here it was in quite a bad way. We fixed up the pottery border and put weed barrier and gravel down and went to go find out who Thomas was. His obituary from …
This vault space is one that had to be entirely rebuilt – from remortaring the bricks to rearranging the squares and adding gravel. It isn’t perfection, but it’s affection. FOCCers care about the graveyard and the people here, and we do our best. It’s better than what this family have had for a very, very …
Read more “V5.10 – Ingham and Ivy Stansfield, and Sarah and Emily May Cunliffe”
James Brearley and George Edward Rodley’s short little lives mean short stories. They were two of Frederick and Mary Ellen (Brearley) Rodley’s eleven children, and they died within two days of each other in November 1869. We also suspect that Mabel Rodley, their sister who died in 1882, is also buried here, but cannot prove …
This stone is a great example of how we can’t always trust a gravestone, or a burial register, or indeed much else, to tell us the truth about someone. From our Facebook page, via researcher Holly: “Been very confused researching this headstone! Normally these things are a valuable tool for giving accurate names and dates. …
Read more “38.8 – Edward and Mary Billington, and Mills, Sarah, Thomas, Jane and John Duckworth”