Trying to find my Blackburn roots, before 1840s

[brianoleary85]

Hello all, I'm trying to get information on two of my ancestors who were married in Blackburn, Lancashire. I'm afraid I don't know a whole lot about researching families in England, so I hope I could get some help here! I'm looking for anything at all about where Patrick Dunn (or Dunne) and Hannah Pollard came from. They moved to Dublin by 1854, and I have information on all of their children and where they ended up here in this country, so I have that covered. It is really their origins in England I am interested in now.

I know there was a Blackburn connection, and have found a marriage record for Patrick Dunn (or Dunne) and Hannah Pollard in that city. I'd be 90% it is the right family, because of the names, town, and Patrick's occupation. (I cannot verify the names of the bride and groom's fathers).

Marriage: 16 Jul 1837 St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn, Lancashire, England
Patrick Dunn - full age Joiner Bachelor of Blackburn
Hannah Pollard - (X), full age Spinster of Blackburn
Groom's Father: John Dunn, Inn Keeper
Bride's Father: Thomas Pollard, Warper
(http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Blackburn/Blackburn-Central/stmary/marriages_1837-1838.html)

This is a Church of England parish (now Blackburn Cathedral), though I know that the Dunn children were all brought up as Roman Catholics.

Unfortunately, both died in Dublin before the first available census in 1901, so I can't check on some of the other details. But I think that, very roughly, Patrick Dunn was born somewhere unknown around 1810 and Hannah Pollard was born somewhere unknown around 1816.

Their two eldest children Jane and James who we know were born in Blackburn are listed on the Latter Day Saints' online "England and Wales Non-Conformist Record Indexes" as being born to Patrick Dunn and Hannah/Anna Pollard in Blackburn in 1838 and 1839 respectively  - looking at the contents of these indexes, I am pretty sure (but not 100%) that they were baptised in St Alban's Roman Catholic Parish, Blackburn. The civil records for their births (and their parents' marriage in 1837) are available through the GRO, so I will be getting them once I can arrange it.

So I'm working off the hypothesis that Patrick Dunn may well have been Irish or from an Irish-Catholic Lancashire background, and he married a local England Protestant girl, before bringing up their children as Catholics in Dublin where they were living by 1854: they had several more children and a large number of descendants in Ireland, mostly involved in the carpentry trade. My descent from Patrick and Hannah is through their daughter, Catherine.

I'm not sure whether they were still in Blackburn by the time of the 1841 census or not. I'd be very grateful if anybody could turn up any information at all, or point me in the right direction! Many thanks in advance for your help.

Brian

[miriamkinga]

1841 census: -

Patrick Dunn, 30 b Ireland
Hannah Dunn, 25
Jane 2 & James 1 all b Lancashire

Sawyers Court, Blackburn

Ref: H0107/502/7/20/33

[brianoleary85]

That was quicker than I thought!

That's great, many thanks for that!

[miriamkinga]

Possible birth for Hannah which ties in with your marriage?

baptised 26/12/1813 at St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn  daughter of Thomas Pollard, warper & Jenny

[brianoleary85]

Aha, I hadn't seen that, thanks! Just found it now by putting the baptism you mentioned into google.

Yes, the Thomas Pollard / warper connection certainly is a strong lead.

There seems to have been two Thomas Pollard marriages to Jennys around this time:
15 April 1809 to Jenny Gudgeon in St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn, and
25 December 1806 to Jenny Manley in Colne.

[brianoleary85]

I'll be getting the GRO cert for Patrick and Hannah soon so hopefully it will shed light on their specific addresses in Blackburn (the wedding entry from the Church said they both lived in Blackburn), by any chance does the 1841 census shed any light on where Thomas Pollard and Jenny might be living at that stage (both the Gudgeon/Blackburn family and the Manley/Colne families)?

[miriamkinga]

Sorry I am struggling to find Thomas & Jenny on the 1841 census

[clayton bradley]

It had to be a Church of England marriage as it was 1837 just before the law was changed. They probably had a Catholic marriage too. Lanopc has Jane Dunn bap  26 aug 1838 born 23 aug dau  Patrick and Ann nee Pollard at St Alban's, gps H. Ingram, Mary Shorrock, so certainly Catholic. The Blackburn Thomas Pollard is likelier than the Colne one, unless you find anything to rule him out. I tried to find some siblings for Hannah on familysearch, but was unsuccessful. If you go to Lanopc and don't use the search, just find Blackburn St Mary the Virgin, you can go through those records and see whether they had other children and check all the Pollard records. Sometimes it may be spelled Pollitt, I believe, claytonbradley

[brianoleary85]

Many thanks for that miriamkinga, that census information is a great help. It certainly helps narrow down years/areas for both Dunn and Pollard. I'm pretty sure I can't progress any further with Patrick Dunn and his father John (very common names which could be from anywhere in Ireland), but I am pretty happy to have gotten back to John Dunn who must've been born in the 1700s, that is doing pretty good by the standard of available records in Ireland (for the labouring classes anyway)!

That's very interesting claytonbradley, I hadn't realised that about Catholic/COE marriages, the registration system was slightly different here in Ireland despite being in the UK at the time. Thanks for putting me on to those St Alban's RC baptisms, I also found their son James in the list.

I've come up with a list of few possible births for Hannah Dunn (née Pollard), including those mentioned so far. Hopefully the marriage certificate will give some extra clues.

I'll post details in case any future searcher on the internet stumbles across here and can provide details:

Hannah Council Pollard, baptised December 1813, St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn. Parents Thomas Pollard (a warper) and Jenny ?.

Ann Pollard, baptised October 1816, Church Kirk, Lancashire. Parents Thomas Pollard and Sally ?.

(Poking around on the internet, this must be Thomas Pollard and Sarah/Sally Grimshaw: they married in Church Kirk, December 1815. Thomas Pollard was a Crofter in 1816, but appears to have been a labourer and coal miner at different stages also).

Other possible candidates a bit further off in time or distance from Blackburn:
Hannah Pollard, bapt March 1816, Bolton-le-Moors, Lancashire. Thomas Pollard and Alice.
Ann Pollitt, bapt October 1821, St Mary the Virgin, Blackburn. Thomas Pollitt and Nancy.
Hannah Pollard, bapt February 1804, Manchester, Lancashire. Thomas Pollard and Mary.