It is such a long time since I posted, though haven't been idle in my research into our fascinating family.
I was on the newton-le-willows.com website and noticed a posting which took my eye, a familiar name Abel Jones, same birthdate and address as my Abel Jones, so I probed further and got in touch with the poster. Lo and behold a whole branch of my ancestry was revealed and filled a huge gap in the tree. It completely changed the format of the line, now going back even further, making the number of names on the tree now to over 5,000, but the joy and thrill of finding all this out was well worth the soreness of the wrists and fingers. Took me five days to type it all in and check it and correspond with my distant cousin.
Whilst pursuing this line, another email reached me from someone who was a distant relative of the Bowler family (a branch of the Broome's) and he was keen to lay a few myths to rest. I think I was a means to an end as I put him in touch with the remaining Bowler's and have now been abandoned. Though I did get the information he provided onto my site asap another four days of typing and checking.
But, wow, what news received recently and has made my brother Martin and I very excited indeed. I have spoken before of the three cousins who were killed in World War 1 - John Peters, Peter Edwards and Walter J Stokes, all were born in Earlestown. Well a local historian has been researching World War 1 and he provided me with a photo of John Peters. He was unable to help with the others, but I contacted Leigh Library and Warrington Library to ask if they could help. Wigan Heritage Centre are providing me with two newspaper articles about Peter Edwards and Warrington with Walter Stokes. I am so excited. It seems that one other of the Edwards boys was killed too, so when the article arrives I can add him to our roll of honour and fill in the details.
This latest revelation has caused me to get together all the names of our known distant relatives who were killed and back to Wigan Heritage Centre to see if they can find anything. The couple of bob it costs to get this information is well worth it.
No doubt I will be back soon with the new information. Linda
And here is John Peters, cousin of my granddad, killed in World War 1.
