Granshaw origins

[czarnolas]

well here goes - my first post!

My mother's maiden name was Granshaw, and the history of that side of the family, and of the name itself have always been a mystery. I have tentatively dipped my toe in the genealogical pool on and off over the years, but am now making a more committed effort to get to the bottom of it.

I've traced the immediate Granshaw line back to the middle of the 19th century so far, and perhaps more of that another time (as I may have drawn a blank there), but noticing that there are others on this forum who are interested in the Granshaw name, I wonder if anyone can help me:

A long-shot e-mail to the huguenot society in London has raised the suggestion that the Granshaw's were huguenots who came over from France around the time of hte French Revolution. Against this, there seem to be Granshaw's registeresd as having been born in this country several decades earlier. This suggest one of several possibilities;

1) I have been misinformed, and they weren't huguenots
2) they may have been huguenots, but may have come over earlier
3) various members of the family came over at different times

The trouble is that Granshaw isn't exactly a French-sounding name, so did they come over piecemeal and adopt the new name each time (seems unlikely)?

So my question is - does anyone know anything about the origins of the family or of the name, or does anyone know what the name was before it was changed to Granshaw (assuming it was changed)?

[Gaie]

Hello Czarnolas and welcome to Rootschat 

A quick check of the IGI on the familysearch website shows this entry:

Extracted from the parish records of Mottram in Longendale, Cheshire (M042931)
Joel GRANSHAW married Anne Arundale on 23rd August 1673.  So the name has been used in England since at least this time.

Familysearch: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

However, there seems to have been an "explosion" of Granshaws in Shoreditch, East London from about 1800 onwards; is this where you have traced your Granshaws back to?

Kind regards
Gaie

[czarnolas]

Hello Gaie, and thanks for your reply.

I've traced back to a Granshaw born in around 1850, but his age and calculated d.o.b. are inconsistent, making it difficult to go back to the next generation with any confidence. One generation further back takes me to the first quarter of the century, and even though I know the name of the father, as records are patchy I'm not yet able to make that step.

These Granshaws are nearly all in London's east end (and this branch almost entirely in Bethnal Green).

I'm intrigued that you've found a Granshaw in England so early. It doesn't fit with the Huguenot suggestion, although it isn't impossible (as Huguenots started to come over to England from the 16th century onwards). Your discovery seems to make it even stranger that after a hundred and fifty years (to the end of the 18th century) there were still so few Granshaws in the country - I know that life expectancy wasn't good, and that there were any number of plagues, but even so...

[Gaie]

Well, the Huguenots did start coming over en masse from about the 1680s so he could have been an early one!

Do you want to post what you have found out already about your line?  Names, birth, marriage, death certificates you have for them, census returns, other bits and pieces?  There are some great "diggers" on RC 

Just make sure you only post about dead people - the living aren't usually dealt with on RC.

Go on, you know you want to 

Kind regards
Gaie

Added:  linked to this thread:  http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,336016.0.html

[czarnolas]

Well, this particular line of investigation starts with one of my great-grandfathers; James George Granshaw. He was born on 21st August 1873 to George Granshaw and Maria Granshaw (nee Buck), in Bethnal Green, London (Middlesex). James' birth certificate reveals a certain confusion over the spelling of Granshaw as in three places it was written 'Grandshaw' only to be crossed out and rewritten without the 'd'.

I also found James' parents' marriage certificate (showing that they married on 17th November 1872, also in Bethnal Green). This showed George Granshaw's father as 'James Grandshaw' (note 'd' in Grandshaw).

This is where the trail gets confused/confusing. I haven't been able to find a record of George Granshaw's birth in order to be able to trace which James (i.e. d.o.b) is his father, and hence follow the line. There is one possible George Grandshaw showing in the 1871 census index with a calculated d.o.b. of about 1851. The problem with this is that the 1881 census (which shows George Granshaw, Maria, and James) suggests a birth year of about 1853. To confuse matters further, George's marriage certificate gives an age of 20 in 1872, suggesting a birth year of 1852. Although some of these disparities can be explained through the timing of the census (etc), not all can. I suppose it is possible that he didn't know how old he was and just guessed each time...

The 1861 census shows a James Granshaw married to Sophia, and with several children, one named George, but he was aged 6 at the time, suggesting a birth year of 1855! There are no other references (that I can find) of a suitable combination of names.

There are two or three possible James Granshaws as candidates for George's father, but unless I can get some documentary evidence to link one to George, then I don't see the justification of pursuing any of them.

The one remaining line of enquiry (which I will explore as soon as I can get back to the Library) is the George Grandshaw showing on the 1871 census. If he is the same George who married Maria and became James George's father, then he does not appear to be in a household with a father named James Granshaw (as no none shows in the census index). Possibly James had dies by this time. My only hope is that either his mother or siblings will tie him back to a James Granshaw on an earlier census.

Gaie - the reference you found to a Granshaw in the 17th century seems even stranger given that this does not seem to have been followed by a slow but steady increase in Granshaws over the succeeding 150 years. Perhaps he was a lone member of the family in this country who either died without children, or returned to whichever country he'd come from. What is really strange though is that if the name Granshaw did come here from another country (rather than being adopted here by animigrant family - unlikely given that it appears aparently independently 150 years apart), then where did it come from? Granshaw sounds English - if anything! If it had originated in this country though, then why aren't there more Granshaws (it's a fairly uncommon name, even now)?

The suggestion (despite any other evidence) that the Granshaws were Huguenots is supported by the number of silk weavers (including severl I've identified) of that name.

[cliffg]

Hi,
For what it's worth, I have a record of George William(1853-1924) marrying Maria Buck (1851-1894). His father was James(1810-1876). George was the youngest of 5 children.
George had 5 children, James George was the first, he married Constance M (no name recorded), and there was one son, Lawrence James (1900-?) who married a (?) Hunter. Does any of this tie in to what you know? My records are fragmentary, but I can go back on your tree to 1753.
I have prepared a large family tree in PDF form that covers U.S, Canada, Australia and U.K. from data given me by many others. It is available if you'd like it. I usually post on Ancestry.com.
The Hugenot connection has been mooted by many, but there doesn't seem to be a clear answer just where the name came from. The 1753 connection was a James Jacques Granshaw, and some of the immigrants to the U.S. had French christian names. Everyone seems to be in agreement that the family were silk weavers, and Bethnal Green and Spittalfields (Hospitalfields originally) were their areas. One of the female Granshaws seems to have been well enough off in the 1800's to keep her maiden name when she married so her son was registered as a Granshaw. There may have been other reasons for that, who knows? Anyway, they were a big family and it's spread all over the world. I am in North America, so one of these days will try to tie all the American Granshaws together, when I have time.
If you can figure out a way to privately exchange email addresses, I'd be happy to send you what I have.
Best of luck, Cliff

[czarnolas]

Cliff

Thanks very much for your post, and for the fascinating insights.

The line you've cited is my own, yes, though you have much more information about the earlier members than I have. If you want to fill in any gaps on the more recent members;

Constance M was Constance May Millard (my G. Grandmother)
Lawrence James (my grandfather) died in the 1970s, and also had two sisters, Agatha and Winifred.
Lawrence married Maud Eileen Hunter

Sadly, the Huguenot Society Library have replied saying that the records relating to Mary Ann Forecast had been returned to the family in 1978, so the only chance of getting them now would be to try to access centrally held records, using the details the Library provided. I will have a go at this in due course.

In the meantime, I've asked whether there are any other Granshaw's whose records they do have that might show the Huguenot connection. Watch this space!

I'd very much like to have a copy of the family tree you mention please. I'll send you a personal message with my e-mail address.

Thanks again.

[Ruskie]

This doesn't really tell you more than you already know, but you may find it helpful:

http://www.nationaltrustnames.org.uk/

[czarnolas]

Thanks Ruskie - unfortunately the search doesn't return any results as it only shows names numbering more than one hundred individuals. Evidently there were fewer than 100 Granshaws in the UK in 1998 (and in 1881).