This story was told on our Remembrance Sunday 2023 tour. This is a story of not just a soldier, but an entire family that were drastically affected by the events of WW1. But let’s start with the birth of a little boy that would one day die for his country. George William Rohrer was born …
Read more “15.4 – Margaretta, George, Leopold and Sarah Mary Rohrer”
Charles David Greenhow came to our (researchers Holly and Sarah’s) attention because of his entry on the 1871 Census, when his relationship to the head of the house is given as “friend”. Not content with merely visitor, Charles was a friend. Who was Charles? This grave tells the story of his mother him and his …
Read more “16.6 – Sarah Greenwood and Sarah Jane, Charles and Ann Greenhow”
This grave spans 51 years and tells a lot of stories in and around the stories of those buried here. We’ve tried not to get sidetracked. Jane Firth and Elizabeth Taylor were both born Hudsons, to Anthony and Agnes (Smith) Hudson of Kendal in Westmorland. There were nine Hudson children and the family were weavers, …
Read more “52.61 – Jane Firth, Elizabeth Taylor, and Agnes and Thomas Roberts”
This story introduces us to some new faces…and an old villain. John Land was born in Wirksworth, Derbyshire in 1816. His wife Mary MacDonald had been born there too, a year earlier. The Lands and MacDonalds were lead miners as were many in that area at the time, and it will have been an extremely …
Read more “53.53 – John, George, Mary, Millicent and John Land, and Hannah Elizabeth Crossley”
John rests here, an offcumden who made the town his home. John was born in 1824 in Halifax to William and Hannah Helliwell of Warley. The Helliwells were regular attendees of Square Chapel Congregational. He became a wool comber and in June 1845 he married Sarah Ann Cockcroft of Ovenden, who along with her parents …
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 …
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 …
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”
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. …