Leeds in the 1870s

[cnosni]

tilly wrote: Hi cnosni I would like to say what a great job you have just done with that family tree. Above and beyond the call of duty, like one or two more on this forum a credit to the Secret Leeds Site Well done. I love doing it,its a pleasure.It has been suggested to me that i should do it for money,but im not intersted in exploiting this as its my hobby (now along with DSLR photography which is taking more and more time up!!)and id rather help people out.Some of these so called "professional" researchers ive come across,especially on Rootsweb message boards,are pompous know alls who look down on other researchers as johnny come latelys.Had a few run ins with a particular guy who was very rude to a lady from the states who made a simple enquiry.Quite frankly id rather not be associated with that sort of person.

[cnosni]

barlickgirl wrote: Cnosni,This is wonderful research, thanks so much. Dakota and I share the same Wells/Coultas ancestry and I do have a tree on Ancestry "Holdsworth family tree" which is public. Since Dakota is in the USA and I'm in Australia it is a long and laborious task for us to get parish records etc. The Wells tree we have is largely copied from someone on Ancestry especially past William Wells b.1807.The earliest I have is Abraham Wells b 1664. Then his son John b.1694, then his son John b.1717 who married Frances Hall. Isaac Wells we know a bit about as he was mentioned in the Cudworth book "the History of Bowling" as "the trusty agent" of Sir Francis Lindley Wood. Isaac married Mary Clayton. Then comes, their son John b.1787 who married Mary Armitage and then William. I am descended from his son James who died age 34 and ther doesn't seem to be a death certificate available for him. Dakota is descended from James brother, Henry.It seems highly likely that your fantastic research has uncovered another generation back for us. Thanks so very much for all this hard work and you have verified for us what was unsubstantiated in our tree.You are all so kind!barlickgirl Its a pleasure,but,i must add caution here as all of this speculation is subject to the PR being checked,especially the deaths and burials.Deaths and burials are crucial to accuracey of family trees and if PR have not been checked for these then there is every chance that persons in a tree who are attributed to marrying and having children may not have actually been able to do so as they may have died as children.If you look at the persons tree you sourced your info from for before William check to see if there are dates,as opposed to just years,for death or burial.This will show the degree of research that they have done and will give you an idea as to the accuracy of the information on their tree.For some strange reason the coverage for Bradford on the IGI is very poor.I assume the PR may be in poor condition or no one has bothered to go through them,which for a city the size of Bradford is surprising.One day i will need to go through them myself as im descended from a family in the area,but its going to be a few years off.Its a pity you and Dakota couldnt both come over for a week or two and go through the PR,not only for Wells and Coultas but also all the other female names that come into your tree,then you would see your respective trees go mad,and you can get to see where they lived.Id reccomend last week of May,as this seems to be when we have our short summer

[barlickgirl]

Good counsel, thanks again for the great work. We think that one relative may have emigrated and joined the Morman Church in the USA, at some stage, maybe updating the LDS from a family bible, as many entries on Ancestry trees do have dates attached. We have found a Coultas cousin through the Internet who has the family bible tucked away in a chest. She has agreed to make it available to be photographed so we can all have a copy. Next weekend is the big unveiling, then we'll be able to cross check some facts for this family at last. We're all very excited.I must get some facts and figures together to post on my Pawson family, who are proving illusive as well. They came from Green Hammerton, is this covered by the Leeds area, do you know?Kind regards

[cnosni]

barlickgirl wrote: Good counsel, thanks again for the great work. We think that one relative may have emigrated and joined the Morman Church in the USA, at some stage, maybe updating the LDS from a family bible, as many entries on Ancestry trees do have dates attached. We have found a Coultas cousin through the Internet who has the family bible tucked away in a chest. She has agreed to make it available to be photographed so we can all have a copy. Next weekend is the big unveiling, then we'll be able to cross check some facts for this family at last. We're all very excited.I must get some facts and figures together to post on my Pawson family, who are proving illusive as well. They came from Green Hammerton, is this covered by the Leeds area, do you know?Kind regards Not too far,look at this linkhttp://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/WRY/Whixl ... x.htmlFrom the excellent Genukio site,lots of info on lots of places

[Dakota]

I am in awe at the information you have pulled together for us and your suggestions. I can get to the motherland easier than Barlick girl as it is only a 6 hour flight for me and it's much longer for her - she just did it last year. So, I might have to see if I can work in a time next year to do just that - would be a good opportunity to visit the two remaining aunts there and the cousins. My sister and I took my mom over for a couple of weeks in the 90's and go to stay with the relatives in Stocksbridge/DeepCar and had a wonderful time. I even got to see the family bible when we were there, but that was before most everyday cameras could take pictures of pages, so the ones that my sister tried to take of the pages are very blurry. So we are eagerly awaiting the information. Plus we have cousins in Yorkshire that are interested in what barlick girl and I have found out so we can talk with them about going through parish records and see if they have the time and/or opportunity to do so to see what they can find out.I've been a bit of a slacker this last couple of weeks, but am back home in South Carolina now and hope to set back up doing some research and getting back on track with this stuff.

[cnosni]

Dakota wrote: I am in awe at the information you have pulled together for us and your suggestions. I can get to the motherland easier than Barlick girl as it is only a 6 hour flight for me and it's much longer for her - she just did it last year. So, I might have to see if I can work in a time next year to do just that - would be a good opportunity to visit the two remaining aunts there and the cousins. My sister and I took my mom over for a couple of weeks in the 90's and go to stay with the relatives in Stocksbridge/DeepCar and had a wonderful time. I even got to see the family bible when we were there, but that was before most everyday cameras could take pictures of pages, so the ones that my sister tried to take of the pages are very blurry. So we are eagerly awaiting the information. Plus we have cousins in Yorkshire that are interested in what barlick girl and I have found out so we can talk with them about going through parish records and see if they have the time and/or opportunity to do so to see what they can find out.I've been a bit of a slacker this last couple of weeks, but am back home in South Carolina now and hope to set back up doing some research and getting back on track with this stuff. Well if you were to do the PR yourself i reckon two of you could make good inroads in a week,though as i said my experience of the Bradford PR is nil.However there is a little bit of light as the Bradford Family History Group have transcribed Bradford parish church burials from 1681 to 1837 on cd rom,which is searchablehttp://www.bradfordfhs.org.uk/ follow this link and then go to their publications.Genuki also lists what and where the Bradford PR is made up and storedhttp://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/CBW/ ... dford.html    

[Dakota]

One of our cousins in England went to view the Coultas family bible and got photos for all of us and also talked to one of the Aunts - she would be one of Fred Coultas' granddaughters, remembering that Fred was the brother of Sarah and Martha Coultas Wells. I had asked the cousin to see if Aunt Dorothy remembered ever hearing anything about the myth of the relationship to the Earl of W and she said "no" that there had never been a relationship or a story. So, we are still left with the somewhat mystery of why it went the round over in the colonies, especially what we know of Henry and Sarah, not folks given to wild tales or romantic notions. Just one of those rural legends, given where they lived, otherwise it would be an urban legend, that somehow got legs and worked down through the generations.Another one bites the dust........

[Si]

The story seems to have a kernal of truth in it, Dakota.There are too many obscure details for it to be a made-up story - or so it seems to me.Keep digging!    

[Dakota]

I just wish I had the interest and knowledge back in the 1960's when my grandmother was alive to ask these questions but back then I thought she was one of 4, not one of 16 and sort of knew that there was an English background, but not that her parents were the ones that had emigrated. But I was only 11 when she died so that was really before I was bright enough to ask a lot of probing questions.Someone had surmised that when Henry and Sarah went back for a visit to England it was about the same time that the Earl and his businesses were involved in a big exposition and one of the businesses they were exploring was mining in America and it may have been that since they were coming from America and Henry had been a coal miner, they may have been invited to an event since Sarah's brother Fred was a mine manager of a small mine. But it's still a big question mark. One of the cousins here in the US got pretty upset with me when I was telling her that some of the family legends weren't true, she took it personally that I was questioning what her grandfather had told her. I sent her the documentation - birth certificates, marriage certs, etc., but for some reason she hasn't called me back....... oh well.

[Dakota]

I'm back.... actually I never left, just had challenges with getting back on, but I finally overcame them.Barlick Girl and I are still chasing down family lore and what not and have continually referred back to the information you all have provided through these posts. I've chased down one of the cousin's that was hanging back and he and his wife are coming to visit in mid April and supposedly bringing photos and documents for me to look at. And I'm still trying to pry photos and documents out of my 92 year old cousin. He keeps telling me if I come back to SD he'll let me look at them. I'm trying to covince someone that lives in South Dakota to scoot over and get them.So, just wanted to say thanks again!