Twiglets
Diarist Gill Shaw charts the rollercoaster ride of researching her family history
Gill Shaw
DIGGING DEEPER
I’m looking over my scribbled Wrigley tree, with its multiple additions in the margins. But my eye’s drawn to one name in particular and I know I can’t put him ofiany longer.
Step forward Henry junior, the son of my 4x great-grandparents Henry and Agnes who I’ve been avoiding till now, because every time I’ve had a little dabble, I’ve got precisely nowhere. Time, then, either to demolish the brick wall or admit defeat.
So, what do we know? Well, not a lot to be honest. Exhibit one (in fact the only evidence so far of Henry Wrigley’s existence) is that 1841 Census of Woodward Street, Manchester, that I keep coming back to again and again. Here’s head of the household Agnes, aged 60, and there’s our Henry, fourth in the list, just below Caroline, and just above William (the one who married Sarah Mafin, sister of my 3x greatgrandmother Richmon).