Isabella Abbott (previously McVey) (nee McDonald) is becomming a particularly productive area for research. My thanks to our Australian connection for this research which takes us further and opens up new possibilities for this side of the Finch family.
Marriage solemnized at St. Catherine’s Church in the Parish of Wigan in the County of Lancashire.
When Married: Dec 31 1854
Name and Surname: Israel Howarth / Isabella Abbott
Age: 24 / 26
Condition: Bachelor / Widow
Rank or Profession: Factory Hand / -
Residence at time of Marriage: Scholes / Scholes
Father’s Name and Surname: John Middlehurst / Isaiah (or Isaac) McDonald
Rank or Profession of Father: Labourer / Weaver
Married in St. Catherine’s Church according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Established Church after Banns.
This marriage was solemnized between us: The mark X of Israel and Isabella. In the presence of us: James Mulroony / Margaret Mulroony
Isabella is found in the 1851 census boarding with Thos and Ellen Layland in Wigan. Living with Isabella is her daughter Nancy aged 6 and a son Robert aged 4. Isabella's age was 22
Monday, September 20, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
William Finch (1835-1912)
There was always a problem with the identity of William who was born in 1835 and, therefore, before civil registration in 1837. It was difficult to locate William and even harder to differentiate one William from another. This was my only experience of paying for a records agent but more about that at a later date.
To make things more difficult than they may be, there are two “William Finch” boys born in 1835 and in the same village of Standish.
The IGI shows the issue as follows:-
WM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 15 FEB 1835 Standish, Lancashire, England
WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 27 DEC 1835 Standish, Lancashire, England
For someone without access to paper records it would have been impossible to differentiate the two births and in the early 1980’s when this research started it was almost impossible to find the correct William and then to try and disentangle identity from a distance.
What about the paper record? Well, the paper record would not help us if we were looking at birth records and so we are looking at marriage records for William who married after civil registration and this did prove to be effective.
Starting from the ‘known’ and moving away to the ‘unknown’ Richard Finch gave us his birth certificate and then the marriage certificate of his parents and his father’s name was William with a calculated year of birth but more importantly a father’s name of ‘John’. This allowed a clear, evidenced and demonstrable way of separating the two Williams born in Standish and ‘our’ William is born at the end of the year rather than the beginning.
Starting from the ‘known’ and moving away to the ‘unknown’ is the standing operating procedure in genealogy and with William it paid dividends.
To make things more difficult than they may be, there are two “William Finch” boys born in 1835 and in the same village of Standish.
The IGI shows the issue as follows:-
WM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 15 FEB 1835 Standish, Lancashire, England
WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Christening: 27 DEC 1835 Standish, Lancashire, England
For someone without access to paper records it would have been impossible to differentiate the two births and in the early 1980’s when this research started it was almost impossible to find the correct William and then to try and disentangle identity from a distance.
What about the paper record? Well, the paper record would not help us if we were looking at birth records and so we are looking at marriage records for William who married after civil registration and this did prove to be effective.
Starting from the ‘known’ and moving away to the ‘unknown’ Richard Finch gave us his birth certificate and then the marriage certificate of his parents and his father’s name was William with a calculated year of birth but more importantly a father’s name of ‘John’. This allowed a clear, evidenced and demonstrable way of separating the two Williams born in Standish and ‘our’ William is born at the end of the year rather than the beginning.
Starting from the ‘known’ and moving away to the ‘unknown’ is the standing operating procedure in genealogy and with William it paid dividends.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Coalmining History Resource Centre
The Coalmining History Resource Centre is an amazing on-line resource to find and I recommend that you check it out
http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/index.html
The is a link on the front page entitled “History of Mining Disasters in the UK” and this is worth having a look. With a searchable data base you can have a look at the Finch family killed in disasters. Have a look at the Ince Moss disaster in 1871.
http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/home/index.html
The is a link on the front page entitled “History of Mining Disasters in the UK” and this is worth having a look. With a searchable data base you can have a look at the Finch family killed in disasters. Have a look at the Ince Moss disaster in 1871.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
William Finch (1894-1964)
This is a picture of William Finch. The picture is torn and seems to have the ‘You are here’ problem seen in maps where everyone touches the point on the map which eventually dissolves. We can see William as being quite dark in complexion even after some photo editing in line with the written record.
William is physically small here like many of his compatriots and other Finch men. If anyone can comment on the photograph then that would be very welcome especially comments relating to the men around William.
Monday, September 06, 2010
"Heneage"
Certain names can proliferate within a family and may persist over time. We find that certain male names arise and maintain a prevalence in our immediate relatives and more distant cousins that form a cohesive pattern over time. Like the ‘magic-eye’ children’s toys, the naming patterns are sometimes only perceived with the perspective of time and familiarity with the subject.
Selective naming within a family is no great surprise and we find the same dynastic pattern most easily recognised within Royal and noble families. How often do we marvel at the ability of the French Bourbons to call their heirs “Louis” through the ages or for ordinary French families to have generation after generation of males called Jean-Baptiste? Some families do that sort of thing and some others do not.
The Finch family to which I belong in the genealogy displayed on Ancestry.com have the usual Finch male names such as “Richard”, “William”, “Heneage” or “John”. The names are repeated again and again and although the English tradition is not to hyphenate names and create “John-Richard” or similar forms, we do find that we can start to see a pattern and that pattern is quite powerful. Naming a son (or a daughter) is a personal matter to the parents but it also serves as a message to the world about identity, culture, society, history and belonging. The effect is so strong that if we spot a “Charles Finch”, we can immediately switch off from the search and move on to another name because this is not a name in the family to which we belong. If we see an “Otis Finch” we can be sure that he belongs to a branch in the USA. A whole range of male names can be ignored in favour of the names we have mentioned as well as the occasional “James” thrown in for good measure. Certainly, it would be fun to find an 18th century “Atticus Finch” in Wigan although that is unlikely to happen.
Despite certain fanciful absences from the family nomenclature such as “Atticus”, the Finch family in Wigan and Standish is heir to a range of strong influences when it comes to naming our sons. There are patterns and fashions in names and the Finch family is no different to many others in that respect. However, we are not the French Bourbons or the German Wittlesbach and we have never ruled a country. As a family, we did not have the burden of dynastic expectation placed on us or labor under a burden assumed by ourselves although time and circumstance do play a part in what we call our sons. Putting it simply, there are names more popular than others. History also plays its part and after the Battle of Trafalgar there may have been a number of boys around England called Horatio and George Washington may have set a similar trend or two when it came to the USA.
In addition to male names in Finch ancestry we witness other names which were popular in English society that are not always similarly popular in the family. So, Edward, George, Peter and Joseph are all popular in society and it would be no real surprise if they cropped up in the family although for some reason the Finch family usually omit these popular names. So much for predictability and fashion. Perhaps the distant choices made in the wider family through the ages were more focused than we had previously imagined and names were chosen deliberately and with determination.
Surprisingly, the personal name that perhaps exemplifies a male Finch in 19th Century Wigan and Standish, and sets us apart, is “Heneage” and this is something that is quite startling. We have here a name that identifies ‘one of us’ and sets us apart from other families. Although “Heneage” is a marker for a Finch family it is also hard to avoid the association with Heneage Finch (1580–1631) and his noble descendents. Try researching a person with this name in the family tree and you’ll find links to nobility suggested by the search engine and this is surprising and also confusing.
Our surprise is because the Finch family in Wigan and Standish is often seen to be financially poor and sometimes confined to the workhouse. We have to ask why we have and why do we repeat the same personal name as a noble family and why does the Finch family repeat this name over time? Cousins born in the 20th century similarly bear the name either as a first name or a middle name and it is clear that the name “Heneage” at some points has been important in saying something about identity and belonging. It is perhaps worth looking at the way in which “Heneage” came to Wigan because it has been important to our family and perhaps has some part in uniting us with even more remote cousins. It is fair to say that other families do use the name ‘Heneage’ although it is also fair to say that it appears to be this family that use the name with such resolute determination.
The start of the tradition of calling Finch males “Heneage” in Wigan and Standish seems to have encompassed all spellings. We have “Hendage” in 1674, “Hennage” in 1798, “Heneage” in 1784, “Hennege” in 1832. All from Standish and Wigan with other possible ‘Finch’ relatives in Chorley and Leyland also using the name.
Who was the first representative of this noble family in the area? Well, we can see that in 1692, “The Honourable (Reverend) Henry Finch”, was inducted as Rector of Winwick in Lancashire on August 1, 1692. Notably, this Henry Finch was the 6th son of Heneage, Earl of Nottingham and a younger brother of Daniel, Earl of Nottingham. Here we have perhaps the first link of this noble family with Lancashire although we may find that this clergyman came to Lancashire because they already possessed estates in the area and had a real link to the county. This possibility of a link to Lancashire is worthy of further research and extensive family papers do seem to exist that would allow a real depth of research. The arrival of Rev. Henry Finch in the County seems to have been followed by the subsequent arrival of the Rev. Edward Finch (1663-1738) who was Rector if Wigan 1707-1714 with a further family member, Heneage Finch, (1683–1757), attempting to become the MP for Wigan at an early point in his career. Have a look around on the search engines and you’ll come across some stories about this family and tangential links to Wigan and Lancashire. The links of the noble family to Lancashire are there to find although perhaps there is a need to explore and develop the links.
My meaning in all of this? Well, there is no suggestion that we have a clear, evident and demonstrated link to the Earldoms of Winchilsea and Nottingham and the noble Finch family. Such bold and overly confident assertions are often found in ‘’fantasist’ genealogical circles and too many people have read Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d'Urbervilles“ and hoped for something to happen. The idea of hidden links to a noble family are often a little blunt, over confident and unproven.
On the other hand; there seems to be something interesting going on over and above simple genetics. There may well be no blood connection between the noble Finch family and our own ancestors although ‘our’ family did assume a personal name of the richer and more prominent family. Is it the case that ‘our’ Finch family simply ‘aped’ the manners and circumstances of an aristocratic ‘sound a like’ to enhance their own status? This would be unsurprising in an age dedicated to aristocracy. Did they themselves believe at the time that there was a link of their own family to aristocracy?
It can only be imagined what the noble and aristocratic Finch family felt when the poor and ignorant Finch family in Lancashire started to call their sons by this exalted name and they then found that the son of a stone mason in Standish had the same name as an Earl. Interesting?
So, we have the real and evidenced connections of the aristocratic family with Lancashire and the Established Church of England and this means we have access to family papers and the records of the Church. There is further research to be completed in the area of personal naming and we may find that the links of the aristocratic Finch family to a rural and gentile Lancashire are greater than we currently perceive. “Heneage” as a name may lead us in a whole new direction. Good hunting!
Selective naming within a family is no great surprise and we find the same dynastic pattern most easily recognised within Royal and noble families. How often do we marvel at the ability of the French Bourbons to call their heirs “Louis” through the ages or for ordinary French families to have generation after generation of males called Jean-Baptiste? Some families do that sort of thing and some others do not.
The Finch family to which I belong in the genealogy displayed on Ancestry.com have the usual Finch male names such as “Richard”, “William”, “Heneage” or “John”. The names are repeated again and again and although the English tradition is not to hyphenate names and create “John-Richard” or similar forms, we do find that we can start to see a pattern and that pattern is quite powerful. Naming a son (or a daughter) is a personal matter to the parents but it also serves as a message to the world about identity, culture, society, history and belonging. The effect is so strong that if we spot a “Charles Finch”, we can immediately switch off from the search and move on to another name because this is not a name in the family to which we belong. If we see an “Otis Finch” we can be sure that he belongs to a branch in the USA. A whole range of male names can be ignored in favour of the names we have mentioned as well as the occasional “James” thrown in for good measure. Certainly, it would be fun to find an 18th century “Atticus Finch” in Wigan although that is unlikely to happen.
Despite certain fanciful absences from the family nomenclature such as “Atticus”, the Finch family in Wigan and Standish is heir to a range of strong influences when it comes to naming our sons. There are patterns and fashions in names and the Finch family is no different to many others in that respect. However, we are not the French Bourbons or the German Wittlesbach and we have never ruled a country. As a family, we did not have the burden of dynastic expectation placed on us or labor under a burden assumed by ourselves although time and circumstance do play a part in what we call our sons. Putting it simply, there are names more popular than others. History also plays its part and after the Battle of Trafalgar there may have been a number of boys around England called Horatio and George Washington may have set a similar trend or two when it came to the USA.
In addition to male names in Finch ancestry we witness other names which were popular in English society that are not always similarly popular in the family. So, Edward, George, Peter and Joseph are all popular in society and it would be no real surprise if they cropped up in the family although for some reason the Finch family usually omit these popular names. So much for predictability and fashion. Perhaps the distant choices made in the wider family through the ages were more focused than we had previously imagined and names were chosen deliberately and with determination.
Surprisingly, the personal name that perhaps exemplifies a male Finch in 19th Century Wigan and Standish, and sets us apart, is “Heneage” and this is something that is quite startling. We have here a name that identifies ‘one of us’ and sets us apart from other families. Although “Heneage” is a marker for a Finch family it is also hard to avoid the association with Heneage Finch (1580–1631) and his noble descendents. Try researching a person with this name in the family tree and you’ll find links to nobility suggested by the search engine and this is surprising and also confusing.
Our surprise is because the Finch family in Wigan and Standish is often seen to be financially poor and sometimes confined to the workhouse. We have to ask why we have and why do we repeat the same personal name as a noble family and why does the Finch family repeat this name over time? Cousins born in the 20th century similarly bear the name either as a first name or a middle name and it is clear that the name “Heneage” at some points has been important in saying something about identity and belonging. It is perhaps worth looking at the way in which “Heneage” came to Wigan because it has been important to our family and perhaps has some part in uniting us with even more remote cousins. It is fair to say that other families do use the name ‘Heneage’ although it is also fair to say that it appears to be this family that use the name with such resolute determination.
The start of the tradition of calling Finch males “Heneage” in Wigan and Standish seems to have encompassed all spellings. We have “Hendage” in 1674, “Hennage” in 1798, “Heneage” in 1784, “Hennege” in 1832. All from Standish and Wigan with other possible ‘Finch’ relatives in Chorley and Leyland also using the name.
Who was the first representative of this noble family in the area? Well, we can see that in 1692, “The Honourable (Reverend) Henry Finch”, was inducted as Rector of Winwick in Lancashire on August 1, 1692. Notably, this Henry Finch was the 6th son of Heneage, Earl of Nottingham and a younger brother of Daniel, Earl of Nottingham. Here we have perhaps the first link of this noble family with Lancashire although we may find that this clergyman came to Lancashire because they already possessed estates in the area and had a real link to the county. This possibility of a link to Lancashire is worthy of further research and extensive family papers do seem to exist that would allow a real depth of research. The arrival of Rev. Henry Finch in the County seems to have been followed by the subsequent arrival of the Rev. Edward Finch (1663-1738) who was Rector if Wigan 1707-1714 with a further family member, Heneage Finch, (1683–1757), attempting to become the MP for Wigan at an early point in his career. Have a look around on the search engines and you’ll come across some stories about this family and tangential links to Wigan and Lancashire. The links of the noble family to Lancashire are there to find although perhaps there is a need to explore and develop the links.
My meaning in all of this? Well, there is no suggestion that we have a clear, evident and demonstrated link to the Earldoms of Winchilsea and Nottingham and the noble Finch family. Such bold and overly confident assertions are often found in ‘’fantasist’ genealogical circles and too many people have read Thomas Hardy’s “Tess of the d'Urbervilles“ and hoped for something to happen. The idea of hidden links to a noble family are often a little blunt, over confident and unproven.
On the other hand; there seems to be something interesting going on over and above simple genetics. There may well be no blood connection between the noble Finch family and our own ancestors although ‘our’ family did assume a personal name of the richer and more prominent family. Is it the case that ‘our’ Finch family simply ‘aped’ the manners and circumstances of an aristocratic ‘sound a like’ to enhance their own status? This would be unsurprising in an age dedicated to aristocracy. Did they themselves believe at the time that there was a link of their own family to aristocracy?
It can only be imagined what the noble and aristocratic Finch family felt when the poor and ignorant Finch family in Lancashire started to call their sons by this exalted name and they then found that the son of a stone mason in Standish had the same name as an Earl. Interesting?
So, we have the real and evidenced connections of the aristocratic family with Lancashire and the Established Church of England and this means we have access to family papers and the records of the Church. There is further research to be completed in the area of personal naming and we may find that the links of the aristocratic Finch family to a rural and gentile Lancashire are greater than we currently perceive. “Heneage” as a name may lead us in a whole new direction. Good hunting!
Saturday, September 04, 2010
John Finch (1804-1846)
Civil registration in England and Wales begins on July 1 1837 and as a result of this commencement date, William Finch’s marriage to Elizabeth Gaskill in 1859 is the last point at which I have a ‘hard copy’ certificate for my Finch line.
This ‘hard copy’ states that William married Elizabeth Gaskill and that his father was a ‘John Finch’ who was a ‘stonemason’. As a result we can count backwards from Williams age at his marriage and begin to look around for a William Finch born in 1835 and this seems to bring us to a family in Standish with a John Finch where John has the required William Finch as a son and where John is a stonemason.
It seems reasonable to consider Standish as the home for William and his father, John, unless anyone can offer an alternative although it is clear that there is a reciprocal movement of Finch ancestors between Standish and its larger neighbour Wigan which had a preponderance of weaving and weavers.
The 1841 Census for Standish gives John’s age (as the father of the required William) and we can count backwards to the most likely John born in Standish. We also have the names of John’s wife given as Jane.
The choice of John is at the moment based on evidence and deductive reasoning although unsupported by secondary documentary evidence. I say that because the IGI is incomplete as is the Lancashire OPC although both resources are magnificent in their scope and ambition. We have to accept and acknowledge that if the records were complete then the story may leap out at us. We must also search for secondary evidence that either evidences what we believe to be the case or offers new and better alternatives.
The birth of John in 1804 lead us to his parents and here we have the IGI to help us with this
Event(s) for John Finch International Genealogical Index
Birth: 29 MAR 1804
Christening: 29 APR 1804 Wigan, Lancashire, England
Parents:
Father: WILLIAM FINCH
Mother: JANE HESWICK
However, we have a problem when we try to find the marriage of William and Jane in Standish a village which seems to be the epicentre of the Finch line. However, the IGI search throws up a number of Finch ‘possibles’
1. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Death: 25 MAR 1959
2. William Finch - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Death: 19 NOV 1930
3. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 23 NOV 1863 Cathedral, Manchester, Lancashire, England
4. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 18 DEC 1823 Prestwich, Lancashire, England
5. William Finch - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 24 APR 1570 Croston, Lancashire, England
6. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 16 JUL 1910 Adlington, Lancashire, England
7. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 25 MAY 1762 Hindley, Lancashire, England
8. William Finch - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 27 OCT 1886 Alston, Lancashire, England
9. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 12 JAN 1658 Wigan, Lancashire, England
10. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 29 DEC 1724 Wigan, Lancashire, England
11. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 07 NOV 1813 Wigan, Lancashire, England
12. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 24 APR 1570 Croston, Lancashire, England
13. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 24 APR 1570 Croston, Lancashire, England
14. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 28 APR 1806 Upholland, Lancashire, England
15. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 02 JUN 1794 Saint Mary, Lancaster, Lancashire, England
The dates are,clearly, either too early or just too late and William Finch seems to have married someone with a name that is a problem for those recording events and may be confused with ‘Keathwich’, ‘Guestwick’ ‘Heswick’ and may originally be ‘Kissack’.
I offer Jane Kissack as an ancestor based on the Lancashire accent that may confuse the issue. We can see this issue of Lancastrian accent in the name ‘Henage’ which is also pronounced as ‘Enage’. We can also see William from Lancaster as a weaver and it seems entirely appropriate for William and his new wife to make their way to the growing town of Wigan and the nearby village of Standish. I am, however, impressed by the way that the IGI has so few matches for a ‘William Finch’ and a ‘Jane’.
The task seems to be to find secondary evidence for ‘John Finch’ who is also a stonemason in Standish. The evidence for a stonemason is limited so far and this may be the next source of information.
John Finch is intriguing in that we have evidence for him from the ‘hard copy’ and now we have to move backwards and evidence and demonstrate him and his parents in the generation that precedes him.
This ‘hard copy’ states that William married Elizabeth Gaskill and that his father was a ‘John Finch’ who was a ‘stonemason’. As a result we can count backwards from Williams age at his marriage and begin to look around for a William Finch born in 1835 and this seems to bring us to a family in Standish with a John Finch where John has the required William Finch as a son and where John is a stonemason.
It seems reasonable to consider Standish as the home for William and his father, John, unless anyone can offer an alternative although it is clear that there is a reciprocal movement of Finch ancestors between Standish and its larger neighbour Wigan which had a preponderance of weaving and weavers.
The 1841 Census for Standish gives John’s age (as the father of the required William) and we can count backwards to the most likely John born in Standish. We also have the names of John’s wife given as Jane.
The choice of John is at the moment based on evidence and deductive reasoning although unsupported by secondary documentary evidence. I say that because the IGI is incomplete as is the Lancashire OPC although both resources are magnificent in their scope and ambition. We have to accept and acknowledge that if the records were complete then the story may leap out at us. We must also search for secondary evidence that either evidences what we believe to be the case or offers new and better alternatives.
The birth of John in 1804 lead us to his parents and here we have the IGI to help us with this
Event(s) for John Finch International Genealogical Index
Birth: 29 MAR 1804
Christening: 29 APR 1804 Wigan, Lancashire, England
Parents:
Father: WILLIAM FINCH
Mother: JANE HESWICK
However, we have a problem when we try to find the marriage of William and Jane in Standish a village which seems to be the epicentre of the Finch line. However, the IGI search throws up a number of Finch ‘possibles’
1. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Death: 25 MAR 1959
2. William Finch - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Death: 19 NOV 1930
3. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 23 NOV 1863 Cathedral, Manchester, Lancashire, England
4. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 18 DEC 1823 Prestwich, Lancashire, England
5. William Finch - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 24 APR 1570 Croston, Lancashire, England
6. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 16 JUL 1910 Adlington, Lancashire, England
7. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 25 MAY 1762 Hindley, Lancashire, England
8. William Finch - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 27 OCT 1886 Alston, Lancashire, England
9. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 12 JAN 1658 Wigan, Lancashire, England
10. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 29 DEC 1724 Wigan, Lancashire, England
11. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 07 NOV 1813 Wigan, Lancashire, England
12. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 24 APR 1570 Croston, Lancashire, England
13. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 24 APR 1570 Croston, Lancashire, England
14. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 28 APR 1806 Upholland, Lancashire, England
15. WILLIAM FINCH - International Genealogical Index
Gender: Male Marriage: 02 JUN 1794 Saint Mary, Lancaster, Lancashire, England
The dates are,clearly, either too early or just too late and William Finch seems to have married someone with a name that is a problem for those recording events and may be confused with ‘Keathwich’, ‘Guestwick’ ‘Heswick’ and may originally be ‘Kissack’.
I offer Jane Kissack as an ancestor based on the Lancashire accent that may confuse the issue. We can see this issue of Lancastrian accent in the name ‘Henage’ which is also pronounced as ‘Enage’. We can also see William from Lancaster as a weaver and it seems entirely appropriate for William and his new wife to make their way to the growing town of Wigan and the nearby village of Standish. I am, however, impressed by the way that the IGI has so few matches for a ‘William Finch’ and a ‘Jane’.
The task seems to be to find secondary evidence for ‘John Finch’ who is also a stonemason in Standish. The evidence for a stonemason is limited so far and this may be the next source of information.
John Finch is intriguing in that we have evidence for him from the ‘hard copy’ and now we have to move backwards and evidence and demonstrate him and his parents in the generation that precedes him.
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