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« on: Thursday 27 January 05 23:11 GMT (UK) »
Hello
I'm trying to get back another generation by finding out some details about James Kirkham who married Mary Brown, possibly in or around Macclesfield about 1824-25. He was possibly a silk weaver at the time , although the Australian death certificate (1883) for his son Isaac have James' occupation as a quarryman/stonecutter.
Their five children - Sarah, Isaac, Mary, Hannah, John - were born between 1825 and 1837 and they were all christened at the Sunderland Street Wesleyan Church, Macclesfield on 29 June 1837.
And that's all we know about James and Mary. Hopefully it's enough to turn up a lead about James and Mary's marriage or their parents through the parish records.
Any information or other advice about where to look would be very much appreciated.
Thank you.
Following a request for more info I received this by PM.
Thank you for your message. Here goes with the other details.
“The Parish Register of the Sunderland Street Wesleyan Church, Macclesfield, recorded the baptisms of five children of James and Mary Kirkham. All the children were baptised on 29 June 1837.”
Sarah, b. 29/9/1825
Isaac, b. 22/12/1827 (my great-great-grandfather)
Mary, b. 20/3/1833
Hannah, b. 23/3/1835
John, b. 4/4/1837
(from work undertaken by my father’s cousin)
The information that Mary’s maiden name was Brown comes from Isaac’s death certificate (died 1883 in Rockhampton, Queensland, under the name of William Isaac Kirkham, which he had assumed after arrival in Australia – definitely after 1864 but maybe a little earlier). So it could be that her name was not Brown at all, as I don’t know how reliable the informant was.
As to James’ occupation, Isaac’s marriage certificate (to Louisa Willcock at St Mary’s, Astbury on 12 September 1859) shows it to be a stone cutter; and Isaac’s death certificate shows his father, James, to have been a quarryman. However, it seems the baptism records above have James as a silk weaver.
I don’t know for sure whether any of Isaac’s siblings came to Australia, but there is no mention of that possibility in the previous research. I had actually thought Isaac and Louisa’s son, Walter (b. 3 July 1860 at North Road, Preston, Lancs. – Isaac had a butchery there) was the first to come here, arriving in June 1878 on the Kapunda. But it looks like his father—who, it appears, came to Australia with Louisa’s sister, not Louisa—might have sponsored him to emigrate to Rockhampton. Louisa did come out to Australia in 1882, sponsored by her son, and died in Sydney in 1899.
My major hurdle now is, because all the children (that I know of) of James and Mary were born before July 1837, I can’t get hold of certificate references through sites like FreeBDM. The same obviously goes for James and Mary’s births and marriage (if there was one). I’ve collated a list of possible death certificates via FreeBDM but, with the number of people with these names, it’s not feasible to purchase all the certificates just to find out if the person had children by these names.
So I’m hoping that the Parish Records will give some leads so I can eliminate a lot of the James Kirkhams and Mary Browns from the list.
One other area of advice please: should I put this level of detail on the message board? It seems to make for a very long message.
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