[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Dave Walsh

I'm Dave Walsh and I originate from Bury [see my comments in the Introduce Yourself thread].

My father Alan Walsh died in 1979 at the age of 53. I'd known little about his family background. His father James died at Cannon Street Bury in the year 1953 aged 56. I lived there until 1958 when we moved to the Sunny Bank Estate in south Bury, near Unsworth. As Cannon Street is in a part of Bury known as "Freetown" that was reputed to have been a bit wild I'd always thought there was a possibility of an Irish Heritage [ie itinerant worker camps] but no apparent links emerged.

After speculating about Ireland for years, some recent research in a disused Methodist churchyard at Unsworth [less than a mile from my home address until 1969] meant I found [uncovered] the grave of my GGGrandfather [also a James]. The subsequent trail has taken us to the Church District in Accrington and the records at Church Kirk. There are Walsh's buried there [it's sometimes spelt Walch] but not linked so far.
I understand that Accrington has a substantial Irish Community itself.

We are currently looking at "Luke of the Cross", living at Oswaldtwistle, near the cross, in the seventeenth century when it was just a few dwellings and possibly with a brother [Peter] close by. Despite some visits and a consultation with helpfull staff at Accy Library we have not come accross a direct reference to Luke Walsh. This is therefore just a general request aimed at seeing if his name rings a bell with anyone local or indeed any Wash's near or far? All contributions welcome!!!
Dave

Also, as a "related" [pun intended] aside-
This could all be a much longer tale and there are a number of odd quirks and coincidences but particularly for Bob Dobsons interest, I'll mention briefly the water link. During the Walsh research, a "one off" reference to the Haslingden Canal Project led to us establishing that [had it actually been built] it would have run from Bury Basin, through Ramsbottom to Haslingden and then joining on to the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Church! We dug out the original 1793 plans which stated that it would terminate at the home of Mr Jon Peel at Church [near his works]. I live just near the Grants Arms in Rammy and the canal would, in fact, have run behind it!

There are several referencs to Luke Walsh from Cross in the Church Kirk registers going back to 1766. The name Walsh dates back to 1639 at Church Kirk. What you need to do is go back to Accy Library and ask to see Jack Brodericks books on the Churck Kirk Registers or my indexes, its so long since I did those indexes I'm not sure what year I got up too but they should cover the time period you are interested in