Good morning everybody, I believe you are enjoying a heat wave, so I hope you are all able to make the most of it in some enjoyable way.Between this forum and its helpful members, a brother who is a bit of an academic, and various miscellaneous sources, I now have a pretty comprehensive family trees of my paternal ancestors. What I am missing is a lot of information about my mother's side of the family. My mother died of TB at Meathop Fell near Grange over Sands in December 1945. My father was left with 2 young children to bring up, a busy farm that he had just moved to near Burnley, from Harden Hall; and all the trouble and strife that those circumstances implied.
His daily help with the job of looking after and keeping in check the two kids (self and younger brother) was his mother in law; my Grannie Lizzie Spencer; and his older spinster sister Auntie Rose. I believe that the 2 were great friends, and may even have played Cupid to my parents.
Unfortunately, they both died I think in 1947; and as I undertstand it one collapsed at the funeral of the other. These changes of circumstances meant that between the ages of 5 and 10 I spent a lot of time during school holidays etc. staying with relatives, mainly in Barlick (Calf Hall Farm),
Earby (Uncle Joe and Auntie Maggie Garlick), Sough (Auntie Fanny Crabtree). In the end, my dad remarried in 1949, and his new wife endevaoured; and to a large extent succeeded; in severing many of his previous relationships- Which leads me to my current search. Over the years I have had very little contact with any of my mother's side of the family.
My mother Annie Spencer was the daughter of Walter Spencer and Elizabeth Harrison, and must have been born in 1915 since she was 30 when she died in December 1945. I never new my maternal grandfather, and know absolutely nothing about him. What did he do for living? had he always lived in Earby? I know that my place of birth is registered as Water Street, Earby; that was Grannie Lizzie's home. My mother had 2 brothers, Eric and Walter Spencer. Uncle Eric I did know; he was a well known gentlemans outfitter who had a shop in Ilkley, and stalls at Gisburn and Otley cattle markets, and probablky Skipton too. All I know about Walter Spencer is that he married a Scottish girl and went up to Scotland as a poloceman.
As a child I slao stayed with Uncle Joe and Auntie Maggie Garlick; Maggie was Lizzie's sister, so she must have originally been a Harrison. What I remember about Uncle Joe is that he was a big jovial man; and ran one of those big flywheel engines at a mill in Earby, I think Albion Mill, and used to scare me to death with the steam and the noise. One extremely fond but vague memory that I have is Auntie Maggio taking me on a trip to New Brighton on a steam paddle boat called the Royal Daffodil. They had a son who I never met called Harry, who was away in the forces in the Far East. I think he was a bit of an inventor, because I was shown what was then a strange object called a 'television' that he had built in his room before he went away.
Current circumstances dictate that in the forseeable future it is very unlikely that I will ever be able to visit old haunts again, so I would really appreciate any information that anybody may have. I know mum and dad married in Earby in 1938; I know my mother was buried in Earby cemetery although I couldn't find her grave when I went to scatter my dad's ashes there in 1993. Practically all the rest re Spencers and Harrisons is a blank page.
Thank you.
cloggy
. I'll try your suggestion. I do remember that it seemed to me that at the time a lot of the cemetry at been dug up, and maybe even moved somewhere else. Your information so far has awakened a lot of long dormant memories. I'd always known in the back of my mind that there was a Rossendale connection somewhere, because we used to visit some relative at Love Clough. I think it may have been 'Auntie Olive' shown as the youngest on the Colne Road census info.
