Family history searching
 

A tip - the Lancashire Family History Society's website has a new facility which is open to all.
On the home page is a turquoise block about surnames. Click onto it to bring up boxes allowing you to ask if any members are researching the surname or the township that you are interested in. An email is sent to the member with your contact details on it, as well as a brief message. Yesterday I received an email from a member within twelve hours of me having sent a query.

Re: Family history searching
 

Thanks for that Bob. I will definitely have a look.

Re: Family history searching
 

Thanks

Re: Family history searching
 

I am looking for information about Esther Pryce who was living at 92 Steiner Street, Accrington, in 1884. I believe she was a Russian Jewish immigrant working in the cotton mill as a cotton winder. She married by certificate (no banns read) John Stephens on 4th July 1884, son of Mrs Eliza Dale, of 15 Hope Street, gave birth to my grandmother, Esther Mary Stephens on 4th September 1884 and died two weeks later of septicemia and exhaustion. Does anyone know:
1) anything about the Jewish community in Accrington in the 1880s
2) if I might be able to view the certificate obtained for a quick wedding, as it may contain important info, and if so, where?

Many thanks!

Rosalind Oakes

Re: Family history searching
 

If you are a member of the Lancashire Library system, you can access the 19th century newspapers on-line using your card number. Search the Blackburn newspapers available using keywords Go into the library's website There was a sizeable Jewish community in Blackburn at that time. There is an essay on that community in the book A Blackburn Miscellany , which I edited and published. There should be a copy in Accrington Library

Re: Family history searching
 

Thank you for your swift resonse. I live in Shropshire but plan to come up to Accrington in the summer holidays so will have a look at the library then. Many thanks! Rosalind Oakes

Re: Family history searching
 

There is a Jewish Museum in Prestwich, a short drive from Accrington, and probably the bus to Manchester passes it. There is a Jewish Family History Society also. The local branch of the Lancashire family History Society meets in the library - see the website, and every Thursday afternoon the society's library/work room in Ossie is open to anyone. They will try to help you.

Re: Family history searching
 

Hi Bob

Thanks for your very helpful response and sorry for the delay in replying. I have now discovered through an ancestry.co.uk DNA test that my great-grandmother was Prussian by birth, not a Russian Jew, so I haven't followed up the information you gave me yet, although I think the woman who brought her up, Eliza Dale, must be connected in some way to the Jewish community.

You and all the people on the Accrington Web do a wonderful job of helping ancestor-hunters like me - thank you very much.

Best wishes

Rosalind Oakes

Re: Family history searching
 

That's OK, RO

Re: Family history searching
 

Hello Bob, do I have to be a member to contact others? Thanks Elaine

Re: Family history searching
 

No you don't.