DIGGING DEEPER
I’ve a clutch of Ramsbottom residents to untangle this month. In front of me is a list of baptisms and burials of people named Holdsworth that took place at Emmanuel Chapel, Holcombe, during the 19th century. Twelve in total. If I can work out who they all are, it might take me a step closer to proving that the 74-year-old Sarah Holdsworth buried at the chapel in 1822 is my 5x great-grandmother.
Provisionally ticked off the list are the burials of 39-year-old Thomas Holdsworth in 1815, and 44-yearold William in 1825. With any luck, these are two of Sarah’s sons – so, my 5x great-uncles. Their birth years, according to the burial records, were 1776 and 1781, which exactly match my Thomas and William baptisms. For my theory to stand up though, I ought to check there aren’t any other Thomas and William Holdsworths of the right age elsewhere – if there are, that’s probably blown my master plan to smithereens before we’ve even begun.