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Family History

Abbreviations I have use, all unless stated relate to me! David Cox   

F = Father
GF = Grandfather
GGF = Great Great Grandfather etc.

I’m not sure what first started me on looking into who my ancestors were,  I do recall my dad telling me that he was most annoyed when he found out that what he thought were aunties were in fact sisters! He came from a large family, and my mum, by comparison, came from a small family. 

Unfortunately, my mum died in 1974 when I was 11 and my dad died in 2001, but before he died I did sit down with him and worked through his brothers and sisters. I put that to one side, and it’s now lost.  So, time to start again.

In about 1990, I started to research again using the Internet and found a wealth of data on line. Nothing like today (2012) but enough for me to get started again and so I found what I thought was my grandfathers birth date, so I applied for the certificate, only to have my cheque returned as I had quoted the wrong source. Disappointed, I left this for a bit. 20 years later, and we have 2010, I decided to start again. This is the great thing about genealogy, you can put it down and pick up again whenever you want!

I found a great website Free BMD that has a great deal on Births Marriages and deaths. This was my starting point. I knew my dad was born in 1923 and was one of the youngest so that was my starting point, I also knew that my mums dad’s surname was Burrow, and the initial H and thought it was Harry.

After much searching, I found my dads dad, and by cross referencing him with other details, found his wedding date.  22nd December 1894, so I applied for the certificate via the government website that was easy to do as I had all the details from Free BMD.

5 days later, it arrived. There it was, Frederick Cox (21) married Alice Ann Shaw (18) on 22nd December 1894 at St Augustines Parish Church in Pendlebury. He was a collier, his father’s name was Thomas Cox who was a tailor. So I now had my great grandfather’s name, and importantly, his profession.

There’s good and bad things about the Internet today, firstly there are a great deal of geneology sites around, the bad news is you have to pay if you want to view the information. Thats a bit naf as its public information, but I suppose they will argue, they took the time to load the data up.

Anyway back to the search, I then started digging around for my dads brothers a and sisters and so far I am up to 8, but I am sure he said there were more, the search goes on .

I now have back as far as my great Great granddad, Thomas Cox who was a tailor, which he passed down to his son Thomas Cox. Now I am a bit concerned about Grandad Frederick, as he is down on his wedding certificate as a collier (miner) but when we comes to my Dads birth certificate, he is now a Street sweeper for the corporation. Having researched the mine, it was still open in 1923, so why did he leave. Having searched the Coal Mining History Resource Centre, where a list of all killed or injured miners are recorded, there is no record of Frederick Cox. So why did he change jobs? He was approx 62 when he died in 1934 but was 51 when my dad was born. Was he suffering from illness? Was he part of the 1912 strike ballot and he was blacklisted because of it? Only time will tell.
My GGF Thomas Cox must have worked with his dad, GGGF Thomas Cox as Ameia Walkers dad, Thomas Walker was also a Tailor. I presume all three worked together in Hulme. What I now need is access to the census to see exactly what data is held.

As I didn’t fancy paying out £12 a month for a genealogy site, I thought I would try to go a bit further back on my mum’s side of the family, the surname Burrow.

After a bit of digging on Free BMD I found my granddads name, Henry Burrow who married Elsie Lorenz in December 1915, Harry’s dad was Obadiah Burrow as was his dad, and his dad and his dad before him! It then got a bit confusing and I admit I messed up a bit and took the wrong branch and ended up with a family tree that didnt belong to me.

I did fine one very interesting fact about my Mums grandad on her mums side, and I quote

"Following the sinking of this Lusitania by a German U-boat with the loss of 1,200 lives, anti-German feelings were running high in Eccles. On Tuesday 15 May 1915, violence erupted. A crowd some 2,000 strong had gathered at Lower Cross Square, where the war memorial is now. The landlord of the Albert was then a Mr Oscar Lorenz, a naturalised German. Anticipating trouble he had hurriedly left the town with his family, quite wisely as it turned out. The mob attacked the pub, smashed every window and attempted to wreck the house. The police managed to disperse them but not before some patriotic citizens had stolen bottles of spirits and cigars. "

I have a lot more digging to do!! 

My Dads Dad Frederick Cox, photo taken about 1900	Alice Cox, my Dads mum, taken at the same time as Frederick.

To be continued

Resourse

Free BMD

Free Census

Lancashire parish records on line

MyHeritage.com Easy to use software to help build your family tree, its free, but if you want the extras, you have to pay......