REV CHARLES FARNSWORTH, born 13th June 1801, died 9th Dec 1865, married SARAH THOMPSON only daughter of Thomas Thompson of Woodhouse, Nr Sheffield and had 7 children, including Sarah, born 1846, who married 11th March 1869 Rev James Richardson. ‘Rev Charles Farnsworth, a blind gentleman, was called to Crescent Rd, Congregational Church, Dukinfield or Providence, in 1843. He was a native of Sheffield, (his father was the manager of Attercliffe Steel Works) and had been educated there but he came to Providence from Liverpool where he had been pastor of the Hanover Street Chapel, which had been burnt down. The communion plate of the Hanover St chapel was presented to Charles Farnsworth on his coming to Dukinfield. This plate was afterwards sent out to Madagascar, and the Queen of the Island was the first person to receive the sacrament from it. He was able to conduct the services himself, but the superintendent of the Sunday School used to read the lessons and give out the hymns. As there was no instrumental music in the services, the person who gave out the hymns also commenced the tune. A band and new choir was formed in 1854 to accompany the singing. The instruments of the band included bassoon, flute, serpent and double-bass fiddle. At that time there was a poor congregation with not 100 persons attending. In 1857 an organ was constructed and Sarah Farnsworth later officiated on the organ.


Mr Farnsworth was a sort of missionary to the whole neighbourhood and if any were sick no matter how many miles distant, nor at what hour of the night or day, he would go. He made a point of visiting every member of his congregation monthly from Communion to Communion. People were very fond of him and although he was blind he was never known to complain. He knew and could repeat all the Psalms and Gospels; also Romans and most of the Epistles, which had been taught him by his mother. He had a remarkable gift in prayer and always necessarily preached extempore. He was never at a loss for words, but in consequence of the terrible affliction from which he suffered he was very much in the hands of and at the mercy of other people. Mrs Sarah Farnsworth died on 30th November 1856, and in October 1859 Rev C Farnsworth married the widow of Dr Whitehead. This appeared to have caused considerable unpleasantness and the congregation began to leave in batches, some going to the Moravians, some to Albion, and some joining the Furnace Hill Church. This marriage might almost be said to have sealed the doom of the congregation. Previous to the marriage the church appears to have prospered and at one time over 300 sittings were let. Matters however grew still more unpleasant and the communion was not celebrated for 6 months. Ultimately Mr. Farnsworth resigned, and on the last occasion of his preaching in the Chapel only four persons including himself were there.

Mr Farnsworth on his resignation removed to Chester but he subsequently returned to Dukinfield and joined the Furnace Hill Church. He died on the 9th December 1865 and was interred at the Chapel. This was the believed to be the last interment to take place there’

( This information has been obtained from "Historical sketch of Crescent Rd Congregational Church Dukinfield )

William Edward Naylor, 1895 - 1910 killed in the Pretoria Pit Disaster 1910

William Edward Naylor, age 15, of Water Nooks, Westhoughton, Bolton, Lancashire was one of the 344 men and boys who perished in No 3 pit on the 21st December 1910.  William was a chorister, and often sang for coins underground for his colleagues.  He was the son of James Naylor and Martha Mary Stokes (my ancestor).

Wow, my fingers are sore from typing into the family website all the new information found on my dad's family the Stokes's and Sharpe's.  Again through my cousin Joan Broome, someone emailed her about the Sharpe's, a young man from Wigan called Dean Sharpe and through talking to him I gained some information and photographs of the Sharp family.  We share the same great grandparents, his great grandfather being the brother of my great grandmother Annie Sharpe.

We have also found out a lot about the Stokes's and have found yet more living relatives, one in Lowton not far from here, one in South Africa and one in Ohio, USA.

Over 500 names associated with the Stokes's and Sharpe's has been added just this week, and one entry today which I will tell you about on my next blog.

Linda

Facebook has become a useful tool in finding family.  I was on the Newton le Willows page on there and someone posted "Where were your Earlestown family in 1911".  I responded Viaduct Street and Bank Street and put the names Stokes and Peters.  A day later someone posted Broster, Viaduct Street.  This rang a bell because my dad Tommy Stokes was living with the Broster family in Viaduct Street in 1911, so I left a post and lo and behold two ladies got back to me, two sisters, Sue and Diane, their dad was a descendant of Jane Broster, they didn't think they had any relatives in Newton.  So now we are all delighted to have "found" each other and I am looking forward to meeting up with them in the future to exchange photos.

Linda

Very strange

My cousin Joan sent me a copy of the 1871 census, and there was Joseph Broome b. 1811 living with his brother John. Now Joseph died in 1862 according to all the research I have done, so how is this possible. I looked at the census again to where his wife Alice was and the children, and she was down as a widow.

Curioser and curiouser says Alice (quote from Alice in Wonderland) - so what do I do. Luckily a medium friend of mine was online so I emailed and asked. I haven't got the full story yet, Joseph didn't fake his death, he did die in 1862, his wife was a widow, but why was his brother using his name on the census.

Watch this space, all will be revealed.

Lots more news

The family website is closer to 3,000 names as my cousin Joan and I are finding more people as we search through ancestry. I have also being doing some research on the Kay/Key family which is my late husband's mothers family. My sister in law sent me some info she had received from her cousin, and from this I looked back further into the family and have sent for their grandmother's birth certificate which should give me the name of her mother, as this is the only name missing from my research. With this I can go back further, and my daughter and her children, along with her cousins will have some of their history as well.
We have discovered that more Broome's and some Jones's emigrated to America at the end of the 19th Century, as I don't have ancestry worldwide I have had to rely on Joan to get the info for the site. But it has been interesting to see where they went and what they did.
More records from World War I have been found, including those of Great Grandfather Broome, which are now on the site and these too provide vital information on addresses etc.,
I found a family searching for Uriah Jones and discovered that they are descendants of Great Great Uncle Abel and Auntie Maggie Ann, which prompted me to contact Wigan Heritage Centre to find the newspaper cutting of their 60th Wedding Anniversary - it didn't provide me with the information I wanted, but it was a start. Still a lot to do on that family. Still a lot to do on the Ashton in Makerfield Jones's too, the 1911 Census didn't provide me with what I wanted to know and the only survivor of that family, Enid, hasn't a clue. I would like to do more about the Jones's and will continue to search.
The Broomes and Hollinheads just gets bigger and bigger with everyday, we are now back to 1672 on the Hollinhead side of the family and we are finding more out about the Smalley's, the Wainwrights and Whiteheads which could take us back even further.
This past month has been perhaps one of the busiest updating and researching. My cousin Joan has been invaluable in sending images and info from ancestry worldwide and I think I will update to that from ancestry UK, when the membership is due to be renewed.
That's it I think for now. The search is ongoing and I will report back anything new as and when it is available.

Linda

Excited

It has been a very exciting week, my cousin's wife Joan Broome sent me some Parish records, and from that I have discovered several branches of the Hollinhead family I didn't know about, and from searching through the family tree section on Ancestry have discovered another living Broome descendant (different branch to ours but sharing the same ancestor) and am really excited to find Jones relatives, still living, with descendants in Ohio, USA. The family tree is so long now and we are now back to 1691.

This family tree business is so frustrating at times, you can find nothing for ages then suddenly you get a lot of information at once.