Post by Mal on Oct 12, 2009 13:23:13 GMT -5
Hello, the trail has led out of Cornwall to the city of Manchester!
If anyone has a subscription could they please help, I'm rather stuck on this one.
A while back the forum members helped me with a bit of a tangle with a Lancashire family, now the tangle has unravelled a bit but due to the lack of census records available for Lancashire in the early period on FreeCen or my subscription I am going to have to appeal to others! I throw myself on the mercy of this forum...
Mary Ann Mellor married David Garside Oldham 1879, my previous research had suggested her children were illegitimate however on receiving the GRO cert today, I find that she was a widow on her marriage and fortunately it gives her father's name which has allowed me to reconstruct something.
Mary Ann Blacas married William Mellor 1861
William dies before 1879 and Mary Ann Mellor marries David Garside (much her younger)- as usual census age and cert age are not quite right. On her wedding cert she is 34, ie. birth about 1845, the census details I have found suggest older, 1841, - a problem which we'll deal with in a moment.
Mary Ann is the daughter of Joseph Blacas (mechanic) of Salford, who is deceased at her wedding.
In the whole of Britain and Ireland I can only find this ONE family, Blacas, in the Oldham area, all related. None before, none elsewhere and none much since. This seems very bizarre and the name is certainly unlike any other surname I have come across. The only reference for a BLACAS surname I can find is that of a French noble family from the Middle Ages. Now how does a French noble line end up as mechanics in Salford? Seems a bit too far-fetched!
Next, I find the ONLY marriage for a Joseph Blacas at Manchester Cathedral in 1844 to an Anne Brace (of whom I can find nothing more either). This causes a problem with the age of Mary Anne but I can put it down to just the general lack of numeracy at the time. Certainly, Mary Ann Blacas leaves her "mark" on the wedding cert suggesting obviously that she were illiterate, which does not bode well for her numeracy either!
I don't know about 1844, but a marriage in a Cathedral for such "humble folk" all seems a bit odd.
I have explored other possibilities that the surname may be Blackash, or Blakes but to no avail, stretching it a bit too.
If anyone can find anything out about this mysterious family that seem to turn up out of nowhere with a Joseph Blacas born about 1820 in Manchester, I would as ever be most grateful.
The author in me already has an 18th century nobleman fleeing from France during the revolution whence he comes to Manchester and founds a new family- ruined but still with their heads on their shoulders! That would be a turn up for the books.... LOL!!!
Thanks in advance,
M
If anyone has a subscription could they please help, I'm rather stuck on this one.
A while back the forum members helped me with a bit of a tangle with a Lancashire family, now the tangle has unravelled a bit but due to the lack of census records available for Lancashire in the early period on FreeCen or my subscription I am going to have to appeal to others! I throw myself on the mercy of this forum...
Mary Ann Mellor married David Garside Oldham 1879, my previous research had suggested her children were illegitimate however on receiving the GRO cert today, I find that she was a widow on her marriage and fortunately it gives her father's name which has allowed me to reconstruct something.
Mary Ann Blacas married William Mellor 1861
William dies before 1879 and Mary Ann Mellor marries David Garside (much her younger)- as usual census age and cert age are not quite right. On her wedding cert she is 34, ie. birth about 1845, the census details I have found suggest older, 1841, - a problem which we'll deal with in a moment.
Mary Ann is the daughter of Joseph Blacas (mechanic) of Salford, who is deceased at her wedding.
In the whole of Britain and Ireland I can only find this ONE family, Blacas, in the Oldham area, all related. None before, none elsewhere and none much since. This seems very bizarre and the name is certainly unlike any other surname I have come across. The only reference for a BLACAS surname I can find is that of a French noble family from the Middle Ages. Now how does a French noble line end up as mechanics in Salford?
Seems a bit too far-fetched! Next, I find the ONLY marriage for a Joseph Blacas at Manchester Cathedral in 1844 to an Anne Brace (of whom I can find nothing more either). This causes a problem with the age of Mary Anne but I can put it down to just the general lack of numeracy at the time. Certainly, Mary Ann Blacas leaves her "mark" on the wedding cert suggesting obviously that she were illiterate, which does not bode well for her numeracy either!
I don't know about 1844, but a marriage in a Cathedral for such "humble folk" all seems a bit odd.
I have explored other possibilities that the surname may be Blackash, or Blakes but to no avail, stretching it a bit too.
If anyone can find anything out about this mysterious family that seem to turn up out of nowhere with a Joseph Blacas born about 1820 in Manchester, I would as ever be most grateful.
The author in me already has an 18th century nobleman fleeing from France during the revolution whence he comes to Manchester and founds a new family- ruined but still with their heads on their shoulders!
That would be a turn up for the books.... LOL!!!Thanks in advance,
M
