The Finch family present in Standish and Wigan is large in numbers and can be traced to the 17th Century although the family has been poorly researched so far.
The large numbers of ancestors in the churchyard of Standish and Wigan is a testament to the strong and robust family presence in the geographical area although there is little ‘presence’ for the family.
Have a look at this site for Standish parish records http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Standish/StWilfrids/index.html and see the sheer numbers of ancestors to research over a long period of time. There is no doubt that Standish (and Wigan) are the home of this surname in the North of England. However, when we compare the two Census returns in 1841 they indicate that the name is more prevalent in Standish?
By the idea of presence I mean the usual artefacts left behind by the family. There are few documents, wills, tombstones or monuments in Churches. If the ancestors collectively left monuments to themselves then those monuments are in the ephemera of the County archive rather than in marble and stone.
As a family we seem to have been financially poor and with little material security. William Finch 1835-1912 died as an inmate of the Wigan Union Workhouse and the Howarth’s who married into the family in 1883 had their own financial problems.
A brief survey of the occupations for the family buried in Standish and Wigan indicate what may be described as ‘industrial peasantry’ rather than the middle classes or ‘shire family’ and this seems to be the reason for the paucity of records. Poor people leave little material evidence of their passing!
The generations seem to contain ‘colliers’ and ‘factory-hands’ whilst having its fair share of early deaths based on ill health. We do not have the professions in the family and we did not have land
No comments:
Post a Comment