Genealogy Chat

In the 1800's my ancesters were farmers and coal miners, what i would love to know wether there are any records about the coal miners from Norden,Greenbooth,Rochdale, ie employment records and the such !!! would love to get an insight into life then.

The people i'm looking into are Elliott Lees born 1829
Robert Lees born 1816
Thomas Lees born 1822

Kind regards adam

http://www.link4life.org/media/downloads/CA66CE68-C4ED-31C1-B310A7531282972C.pdf

is a link to "Rochdale 1800 - 1856" which makes quite interesting reading. It has a lot more than coalmining but gives an insight into life at that time.

Ozi.

I guess you've got this?

1841 England Census
Name: Elliot Lees
Age: 11
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1830
Gender: Male
Where born: Lancashire, England

Civil Parish: Rochdale
Hundred: Salford
County/Island: Lancashire
Country: England

Street address: Bongs

Occupation: coal miner

Registration district: Rochdale
Sub registration district: Spotland Further Side
Neighbors: View others on page
Household Members: Name Age
Thos Lees 45 - farmer
Alice Lees 45
Robert Lees 25
John Lees 20
Thos Lees 15
Alice Lees 15
Elliot Lees 11
Betsey Lees 7
Molly Lees 6
Edward Lees 3

Marriages Mar 1851
Butterworth Eli Rochdale 21 613
>>>>Lees Elliot Rochdale 21 613
Lord Elizabeth Rochdale 21 613
Rawstron Ellen Rochdale 21 613
>>>>Schofield Margaret Rochdale 21 613
Wolfenden Judith Rochdale 21 613
Woolfenden Judeth Rochdale 21 613
Woolfenden Judith Rochdale 21 613
Worrall Jonathan Rochdale 21 613

Yes thanks i have all those details elliott married margaret schofield in 1851 i have their marrage cert, what i now wanted to do is find out a bit more about them i know they lived at bungs i went up there sunday to have a look round its just ruins now
Thos was a farmer there 1841
Alice he's mother was a farmer there in 1851

Thanks i've tried google-ing it but i would like more specific info and cannot find on any sites any suggestions ??????

Adam, sometimes it says on the census under the Occupation section however many acres they had. We have had 60 and 120 acres different relatives thoug. And the farm where they worked is still there. lthough it is a listed building.

I quess you already know this....

yeah your right ryan it says farmer of 8 acres

It would be brilliant to find our miner ancestors mentioned personally in the records, but unless they perished in a spectacular way, sadly is does seem difficult.

We went to the National Mining Museum near Wakefield about four years ago and really enjoyed the visit. This is the website - well worth a look.

http://www.ncm.org.uk/

We came away with a student pack, aimed at GCSE students which contained census records, maps and details of families working down the mine. It cost a few pounds but makes fascinating reading.

There is one story of a young girl no more than 12 working as a hurrier for her father. She explained the nature of her work and how the coal hewers worked naked apart from their underpants in spaces no more than a foot high.

Do visit if you can, the underground tour is quite realistic, albeit only a few tens of yards below ground whereas the real pits could go down for several hundred.

I was privileged to go to the coal face of Cronton Pit near Liverpool when I was at school in the 1970's.

The shaft was about half a mile down, and we had to walk another mile down to the face, at an angle of about 20 degrees, which was were the coal seam was. By this time we were a mile below ground.

Once at the bottom, we crawled along the face itself, about 250 yards, no more than four feet high. At the other end was the conveyor which brought the coal back up to the bottom of the shaft.

We actually traveled back up kneeling on the conveyor - took us about ten minutes, as opposed to the half hour or so it took us to walk down on the other side.

Can you imagine 16 year olds being allowed to do this to day?

very interesting website i might get down there one day soon thank you

The map on www.old-maps.co.uk shows coal pits very close to the farm. They would be the early type of pit, small, shallow and short-lived, worked by just a handful of people. The family papers of the local major landowner might have more information.

where would i find those papers robin ? sounds very interesting