Diarist Gill Shaw charts the rollercoaster ride of researching her family history

DIGGING DEEPER

Gill Shaw

Well, my little diversion last issue into the life of Anthony Lymm was fun but inconclusive. Our Mr Lymm or Limb might be the father of Joseph Holdsworth of Ramsbottom, but there isn’t a scrap of evidence. And, more to the point, there’s nothing to prove my ancestor Sarah is the Sally Holdsworth recorded at the boy’s baptism either.

So, one last thing to try. Let’s head back to Ramsbottom and have a look for the other Sarah – Joseph Holdsworth’s widow – in the censuses. Joseph himself died in 1838, but according to the parish registers of Emmanuel Chapel Holcombe, his wife, buried in 1885, lived to a cracking 97 so with any luck she’ll be on a fantastic five censuses. And one of those just might include that magic visitor who’ll join the dots…

At Ancestry.co.uk, I input Sarah Holdsworth, born 1788 +/- five years (to allow for a little understandable exaggeration in her age at burial), and we’re off. Here at Factory Yard, Ramsbottom, on the 1841 Census are Sarah Holdsworth, a housekeeper aged 50; Rosanna and John Holdsworth, both 20, both cotton spinners; Harriet, 15, and Sarah, 13, both cotton piecers; and Joseph, aged nine.