Gaskell Family Tree

Family Coat Of Arms Mug

2013-11-22T16:18:00.002+00:00

Family Coat Of Arms Mug

If you are looking for the perfect gift idea for a family member, loved one, newlywed, genealogist or just for yourself we have a fantastic surname origin mug which would fit the bill.

Complete with your chosen surnames coat of arms, this product is available to personalise with almost any name (double barrelled names not accepted). We also have a matching coat of arms plaque available.

Item would also make a great stocking filler for someone. Great for people you know who are doing plenty of genealogy family tree searching work at the moment.

Click here for more information about this great family cost arms mug.

Celebration of the Completion of the Tower

2011-03-31T12:58:00.002+01:00

Blackpool Tower was completed in 1894. Amazing what they had done in those days when you think about all of the special clothes and equipment that is used today.

The picture above is a celebration in the backyard of a Kirkham public house a few days after the completion of the tower in 1894. Walter Smith is the only one ID in the picture, the third man from the left in the back row, had worked on the building of the Tower as a ganger. No hard hats and bright coloured jackets. Flat cap the order of the day.

My Great Grand Father, Thomas Gaskell and his brother William Gaskell were Stone Masons for the project of building the Blackpool tower. they may have helped prepare the foundation stone, which was laid on the 25th September 1891 by Sir Matthew White-Ridley who was Blackpool's Member of Parliament at the time.

His words were recorded presumable beforehand on a phonograph cylinder which was placed under the foundation stone alone with coins and newspapers. The Mayor and mayoress of Blackpool were there also.

Blackpool Library

2011-03-16T14:38:00.001+00:00

Still on the hunt for information and records for Blackpool.

Information for the Blackpool Tower Company. The Lancashire Archives only have records of the board meetings and shareholders records. Not much detail about the tower itself. I am looking for information about the building of the tower as Alfred and William Gaskell, stone masons, built the stone foundation of the Blackpool Tower.

The senior archivist did give me the link to the Blackpool Library, who may have local newspapers from the 1890s, which may contain some pictures etc. the t the library is http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Services/G-L/LibrariesLocalandFamilyHistory/

Blackpool Central Library,
Queen Street,
Blackpool
FY1 1PX
Tel: 01253 478090
Fax: 01253 478071reference.library@blackpool.gov.uk

Cemeteries

Holy Trinity, Dean Street, Church of England
St John, Church St, Church of England
Bethesda, Bethesda Rd, Independent

Monumental inscriptions for the parish church, St John (which no longer has a graveyard), Holy Trinity, and the Bethesda Chapel have been published by the LFH&HS.

Census

Details about the census records, and indexes for Blackpool.

Getting a head start on the family tree

2011-03-11T13:49:00.000+00:00

So you have a small acorn of a family tree with you in it. The next stage is, where possible, to ask your family. So often, people wish they had asked elderly relatives more about their lives and memories while they had time. This is your chance. Whether you phone, visit or write, remember to make a note of every detail they tell you. There might be clues in their memories of older generations that will be really important later.

And remember this isn't just a fact-finding exercise; more than any other topic, genealogy brings families together across generations, talking over the dinner table or a cup of tea. Memories do fade so you might need to be patient as your relatives search through their recollections. Often what is most rewarding about these early stages of your family tree aren't the names and the dates but the stories and anecdotes about the characters and quirks of those earlier generations. This is your family's oral history and it's just as important and just as valid as written records in government archives.

This is where the real world meets the virtual one. As you start to put your family tree together online, you will want to add colour with photos and documents from the past. A lot of people find amazing collections of family photos in their loft or garage and there's something beautiful and slightly illusive about those posed sepia shots of an old family wedding or day out.
Sometimes, helpfully, a relative has written names on the back of photos so you can identify who is who, but often the faces sport familiar eyes but are otherwise anonymous! Don't worry - this is all part of the detective work of the family historian and you will hopefully be able to put a name to a face later. Your family photographs might go back as far as 1870 when portrait photos became more mainstream. Before then, people were recorded in paintings, sculptures and engravings. If you discover you have an illustrious family, you might find images of your ancestors at the National Portrait Gallery or other galleries local to the area in which your family originates.

TIP: When a relative can't remember a name or date, suggest something incorrect and allow them to contradict you. It's a great way of bringing people's recollections to the surface - try it on your own family.

Blackpool Directory 1934

2011-03-11T13:31:00.000+00:00

Came across this information which is very helpful for people looking around Blackpool

A brief guide and an A-Z list of Householders & Businesses.

Blackpool Guide 1934 A guide to Blackpool in 1934.
Blackpool Householders a-z 1934 An a-z list of Blackpool Householders in 1934.
Blackpool Householders ADDITIONS 1934 A list of Blackpool Householders added to the 1934 directory just before publication.

UK Census Dates

2011-03-08T09:32:00.002+00:00

Census are taken in the UK every 10 years. Below are details of which nights the census was taken.

1801 - Sun. 1 March
1811 - Mon. 27 May
1821 - Mon. 28 May
1831 - Mon. 30 May
1841 - Sun. 6 June -

Earlier Warwickshire Census information.

1781 for Chilvers Coton, names of householders with ages.
1782 for Astley, names of householders with ages.
1790 for Alcester, Warwick, Southam and Stratford-upon-Avon census from the Warwickshire FHS
1801 for Brinklow, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1801 for Church Lawford, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1801 for Hillmorton, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1811 for Barston, 'All' named.
1811 for Coleshill, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1811 for Warwick - St Mary, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1821 for Bedworth, names of householders & occupant numbers. Transcription available from the Warwickshire FHS
1821 for Barston, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1821 for Coleshill, names of householders & occupant numbers
1821 for Farnborough, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1821 for Kineton, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1821 for Rugby, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1821 for Southam, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1821 for Warwick - St Mary, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1831 for Halford, Householders named with household numbers.
1831 for Coleshill, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1831 for Warwick - St Mary, names of householders & occupant numbers.
1831 for Warwick - St Nicholas, names of householders & occupant numbers

In Warwickshire, there are a number of places that have been indexed over the year and these make life much easier, as you don't have to search for hours to find a needle in a haystack.

The PRO sell several fiches to the public PRO Email Contact

Some early information from Warwick town is indexed on my pages below (see the buttons)

The Warwick County Record office has a list of the indexes they hold
on the web (the list is on the web, not the indexes at the moment) Due to the changes in the Warwickshire web pages at the moment, it is best to search for them. Go to: Warwickshire Web and click on "Find" then search for "County Record Office" there are a bunch of great links !

The Coventry City Library and Local Studies Library has a web page with details of what they hold on it - see CRO Index Page

The Birmingham City Library has a web page with details of what they
hold on it - see Brum Info

The Hereford Record office has a web page on Hereford CRO
and try The Hereford FHS web page on The Record Office

The Lichfield Record office has a web page on Lichfield RO
Look for the link to their Online Searchable Catalogue

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has a web page on Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Gordon Beavington has indexed many places in the Southern part of Warwickshire, and has CDs available
Contact: Gordon Beavington or see mycensuses.com

1821 for Bedworth is transcribed and available from the Warwickshire FHS
1841 for Warwick town is indexed in the WRO
1841 FreeCEN data now Online FREE !
1851 for Warwick town is indexed in the WRO
1851 Census was put out as a pilot study by the LDS, and is available on CD (WAR, NFK, & DEV)
1861 FreeCEN data is now mostly Online FREE !
1861 for Warwick town is indexed in the WRO
1861 for Leamington Spa is indexed in the WRO
1861 for Coventry is for sale on fiche from the PRO 26 PRO Email Contact
1861 for Harbury & Knowle is indexed by the WRO
1871 for Warwick town is indexed in the WRO
1881 Census for the whole of the UK is on CD available from the LDS, also online at Ancestry UK 1881 census
1881 Census strays for ALL Coventry born strays found outside Warwickshire, are on Covkid's Page
1891 FreeCEN data now starting to go Online FREE !
1891 for Ashow from the Warwickshire FHS
1891 for Hatton (Village & Asylum) from the Warwickshire FHS
1891 census for Birmingham, Aston, Handsworth, also Rugby is indexed privately
and can be searched for a fee, contact: Mr. James Wilson,
71 Heath Croft Road, Four Oaks, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, B75 6NQ.
Postal enquiries only. There is a cost.
1891 Census for Coventry, Index - c/o Peter Cobbett, 17 Green Lane, Coventry CV3 6DH
1901 Census for Nuneaton, Index - Transcribed by Alva King Nuneaton Surnames Online Index
Courtesy of the Nuneaton & North Warwickshire Family History Society
1851 - Sun. March 30th / 31st March - 1851 Instructions to Household & Return Form
1861 - Sun. April 7th & 8th - 1861 Instructions to Household & Ship Instructions & Ship Return Form
1871 - Sun. April 2nd & 3rd - 1871 Instructions to Enumerator & Enumerator's Summary
1881 - Sun. April 3rd
1891 - Sun. April 5th
1901 - Sun. March 31st Available on the Internet www.1901census.nationalarchives.gov.uk - 1901 Instructions to Enumerator
1911 - Sun. 2 April Available on the Internet www.1911census.co.uk - Example Return Form & Part of the Enumerators Instructions
1921 - Sun. 19 June (Probably not available to public until January, 2022)
1931 - Sun. 26 April (Destroyed 'by enemy action' in WW-II)
1941 - Not taken due to wartime conditions.1841 Instructions to Enumerator & Penalty Notice

Alfred Gaskell 1869

2011-03-07T14:33:00.002+00:00

We know that Alfred Gaskell a Stone Mason build the stone work for the Blackpool tower in 1891. His father Peter Gaskell moved the family to Blackpool. We know they lived in Blackpool in 1871 and would have moved to the area before that date. Peter Gaskell died just before the work started on the Tower, however we know that Alfred and brother William worked on the tower. Alfred Gaskell was born in 1869 and would have completed work on the tower before marrying.

Blackpool Tower was, at the time of its building, the greatest British construction of the time, and is now a great icon of British Victorian engineering.

The Tower was conceived by John Bickerstaffe, a Blackpool hotelier, who, in 1889, during his incumbency as mayor of Blackpool, visited the Great Paris Exhibition, and was amazed by Gustav Eiffel’s tremendous tower. Immediately upon his return home, Bickerstaffe set up a committee of businessmen to raise the funds to build a similar tower in Blackpool. They commissioned a design from Messrs Maxwell and Tuke, architects, of Manchester, who assured the worthy dignitaries that it was feasible, and indeed laudable, for a 500 foot tower to be built alongside the Blackpool seashore.

On 19^th February 1891, the Blackpool Tower Company Limited was registered. The company purchased the land and laid out foundations. The Tower is built on a foundation of cotton bales, to ensure flexibility in high winds, and to ensure that in the unlikely event, Heaven forbid, that the Tower should topple, then it would land safely in the chilly waters of the Irish Sea. On 29^th September 1891, the foundation stone was laid, at a ceremony attended by luminaries from the borough and from numerous other northern towns.

The building took three years to complete, using 5 million bricks and 2,500 tons of steel, at a cost of £290,000 (£40 million in today’s money). About 200 workmen were engaged at any one time, scaling the dizzy heights and amazingly only one fatality was recorded of a young man who lost his grip and plummeted 100 feet to the ground. While construction was underway, the lower part of the building exhibited an aquarium, modelled on the limestone caves of Derbyshire. The aquarium is extant and is still open to the public, showing 57 species of marine creatures.

The Tower was opened to the public on Whit Sunday, 14^th May 1894, and has been open in every summer season since that date. In 1897, the top of the Tower caught fire and the platform could be seen blazing from fifty miles away. Despite high winds, storms, hurricanes and minor earthquakes, the famous Tower has never flinched from its position. Although the interior of the Tower has been modernised, much of its original decoration remains in place, including the exceptional Pre-Raphaelite figures on the ballroom tiles. The Tower is continually being painted, workmen starting from the base and finishing at the top, and then immediately starting work again on the base, using 6 tons of paint each round. The Tower is now a ‘Grade 1’ listed building, but not as yet a World Heritage Site. The instigator of the Tower project, Sir John Bickerstaffe died in 1930, and is buried in Blackpool. [Layton Cemetery, Talbot Road, Blackpool, FY3 7BB]

Start of the road

2011-03-07T13:42:00.001+00:00

So I guess it was one of those things that I always said I would do one day. To be honest I never talked much about the family history with my mum and dad. No idea why, just that we never talked much about family of the past. I always got little bits, but nothing that stuck in my mind.

I start the job last month with Ancestry "Family Tree Maker" Software. Before jumping into the pot and paying out membership fees to use the site, I felt it was worth doing as much work as possible with what I could find on the web. You will be surprised what you can find.

The first job. Talk to the parents and enter in the software as much information possible. kicks of the process. I spent about a couple of weeks doing this task on and off. I then found myself wanting to get to the census information. So I paid for two census of the 1911 site. the census will give you a lot of informaiton, which I will post as another blogg in the future.

So what else is it worth doing? Well I have joined up on a couple of forums. www.rootschat.com comes over a very friend and useful site. You get a load of tips here. The other site to go to is the http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/ Here you get good info from the records that have been transcibed.. Finally the other place to go, whihc will give you links to other areas is UK Births, Marriages and Deaths site http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/ I say links to others as some counties have then done their own sites, whihc give you great details and a place to order copies of the records.

Going to finish off at this point for now. I will try and bring you other bits on my family tree task as well as writing up on Gaskell's of the past that I come across.