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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Durham => Topic started by: jof on Thursday 06 May 10 06:02 BST (UK)
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Hi, I'm looking for help in sorting out the maze of Featherston/Featherstone families in Weardale, and in particular from the two localities of Middle Rigg and High Rigg. Any connections or assistance would be greatly appreciated, please! Some Featherstons from these areas emigrated to Canada, Australia and NZ in the 19th century.
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Hi, welcome to RootsChat. If you give us some names and dates, details of what you already know and what it is you want to know then we'll do our best to help you out.
I don't (so far) have Featherstones but I do have Weardale ancestors and they are tricky to untangle.
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Ok. My husband's 3x GGM Mary Featherston (1797-1840) was a daughter of John Featherston and Margaret Emerson who were married in 1781 in St John's Chapel Stanhope Durham. Mary Featherston married Henry Featherston, 1790 - 1847, son of Ralph Featherston and Margaret Vannon, who were married in 1771. Henry and Mary lived at Middle Rigg Weardale Durham. I believe that at neighbouring High Rigg was the family of Thomas, 1784- 1862, a brother of Mary, who married Jane Keenliside and possibly had a previous wife Hannah, and that another brother John 1790 -1864, wife Jane Hodgson and their family also lived at High Rigg before emigrating to Canada in the late 1820s. Joseph born 1829, son of Henry and Mary, married his first cousin Mary b 1829, daughter of Thomas and Jane. My husband's 2x GGF was Ralph, another son of Henry and Mary. He emigrated to Victoria Australia in 1853 with his wife Mary Greggs and two small children, who both died soon after arrival, but the couple had another 8 children in Australia who all survived and produced descendants. Two other brothers of Ralph also emigrated, as did Thomas b 1832, a son of Thomas. There are a number of other Featherston/e emigrants from Durham to Australia that I would also like to be able to tie in, and of course I would also like to work out the relationship between Henry and Mary.
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Hello Jof. Here is a Featherston gravestone inscription from Stanhope. The only thing that ties in with your request is the Ralph part.
Anyway here it is.
Sacred to the memory of William, the son of Ralph and Phebe Featherston, late of Holm House, Burnhope, who died 4/November/1810 aged 28 years.
Also of Phebe, the wife of Ralph Featherston, who died 2/April/1816 aged 54 years.
Also the above Ralph Featherston, who died March/18/1832 age 77 years.
As a matter of interest I had a look at the 1861 census so as to see the number of Featherston/Featherstone in the Dale and there were 314 and lots more with Featherstone as a christian name, indicating links with other well known surnames in Weardale like Bell, Emerson and others.
It looks like you have a tricky job sorting that lot out.
Adam
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Yes, I know, so many families in the district, and so many with the same first names eg. John, Ralph or Thomas, who were probably all related to one degree or another if we could go back far enough - if only the baptism and marriage records gave more identifying information, it would be easier to connect them up! I don't think there are very many burials to be found.
Cheers,
Jo
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Do you know of any Featherston(e) families in Weardale with connections to the Featherston(e) families in Alston?
Regards, Vera
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No, not yet, but looking at the marriages in Alston on Genuki, it's clear that there must have been connections, because there are a lot of the same surnames in common with Weardale. I see that as well as Featherstons there were a number of Keenlisides in Alston for example, and other names like Nattrass, Todd, Bell, Walton, Emerson, Harrison, Peart etc. I suppose it's not that far up the road and over the border from Weardale, so not so surprising really. I think I have actually been through Alston, after visiting Weardale in 2007 :)
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My ancestors also lived at Middle Rigg, Weardale and were related, by marriage, to Featherstons. Here's some information from my family tree:-
John Hewitson was baptised Saturday 17th May, 1794 (also recorded as 10th May, 1794, St Johns Chapel). He married his next-door neighbour, Isabella Hodgson, who was living with her parents Joseph and Hannah (nee Featherstone) at High Rigg, where she was born in
March, 1793.She also came from lead mining stock. They were wed on 1st June, 1815 at St Johns Chapel. He was 21 and she was 22. Hope this is useful.
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Hi, I'm looking for help in sorting out the maze of Featherston/Featherstone families in Weardale, and in particular from the two localities of Middle Rigg and High Rigg. Any connections or assistance would be greatly appreciated, please! Some Featherstons from these areas emigrated to Canada, Australia and NZ in the 19th century.
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Good luck with that one!
Dad's family are Elliotts and Stobbs from upper Weardale. Small gene pool, sons all callled after their fathers, big families and generations close together . A nightmare! I go back to Pearts and heaven knows how many of those there were up in Weardale.
Fairly common for 1st and 2nd cousins to marry
My geat Aunt was called Amelia Gardiner Elliott . Gardiner was her mothers maiden name.
She married her cousin, who was the illegitimate child of her mother's sister, and became Amelia Gardiner Gardiner!
There are a few High Rigg locations in St John's Chapel and Ireshopeburn
Try these resources
Weardale family history]https://www.facebook.com/groups/1519178888304609/[url] Weardale family history
(https://www.facebook.com/groups/1519178888304609/[url)https://www.facebook.com/groups/867110996654752/[/url] Old Weardale Photographs
The Weardale Churchyard Project. I think the transcriptions were done in the 1980's
http://www.friendsofkillhope.org/Weardale%20Churchyard%20Project.html (http://www.friendsofkillhope.org/Weardale%20Churchyard%20Project.html)
Also for current and historic OS maps and name places this Durham.gov archaeology site
http://www.keystothepast.info/article/10338?SEARCH=ireshopeburn (http://www.keystothepast.info/article/10338?SEARCH=ireshopeburn)
Hope this helps. I know Weardale quite well and only live about 45 mins away,so just shout out if you have any questions!
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And this is what your Ancestors from Weardale would have sounded like!
This is John Peart born 1872, retired Hill farmer 9and no doubt lead miner) known as "Johnny at Rigg" He lived at either High or Middle Rigg beside Burnhope Reservoir above Ireshopeburn. Burnhope Reservoir was created in the 1920's and submerged the village of Burnhope.
If you scroll down it tells you where to go to see a transcript of the interview ;D
Enjoy!
https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects/021M-C0908X0043XX-0300V1 (https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects/021M-C0908X0043XX-0300V1)
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From the Weardale Churchyard project
RECORD SJC 222
Sacred/ TO THE MEMORY OF/ PHOEBE HODGSON WIFE/ OF JOSEPH HODGSON of WEEDS WHO/ DIED JULY 29TH 1855 AGED 69 YEARS/ ALSO JOHN FEATHERSTON THEIR SON/ WHO DIED 19TH FEB. 1853 AGED 39 YEARS/ ALSO JANE THEIR DAUGHTER WHO DIED/ FEB. 21ST 1855 AGED 39 YEARS/ ALSO OF THE ABOVE JOSEPH HODGSON/ WHO DIED MAY 13TH 1866/ IN HIS 80TH YEAR