More on the William Bridge Family

I've recently had two surprises on the Bridge line. First, when I was browsing the family tree on new family search (www.new.familysearch.org), I noticed a little green arrow next to William Bridge and Jane Aspinall. I had already completed all the work for this family (including finding their daughter, Louisa, who was born and died in 1848), so I was surprised that there was something new. Someone else working on this line must have entered something. So I clicked on the arrow. Apparently this couple had a daughter born in 1835 named Ellen. The information came (most likely) from the LDS extraction program, which is now no longer operational, but which compiled christening records from all over the world for many years. Ellen Bridge was born in 1835 to parents William and Jane Bridge. Since I have researched every Bridge family in Bolton thoroughly to find relatives, I know that there was only one William Bridge married to a Jane - so this child must be theirs. Also, William and Jane were married in 1834, so it makes sense that their first child (remembering that there was no birth control back then) would have been born in 1835. So that was surprise number one!

Surprise number two happened today as I was reading my email and came across a post from the Lancashire BMD website. They (and I, since I volunteer for them) have been correcting the birth, death, and marriage indexes and entering the information from birth certificates online for all government records going back to 1837 when they started requiring registration of vital statistics. I decided to just check all the birth records from 1837 to 1841 when the first living child of William and Jane's, Joseph, was born. Guess what I found? Robert O. Bridge, born 1838. His mother's maiden name was Aspinwall just like all the other children of this family. Since there was no Robert Bridge on the 1841 census with William and Jane, I assumed he died as a baby, so I checked death records and found him in 1839.

So add two more children to the William and Jane Bridge family:

William Bridge m. Jane Aspinwall 1834

Children: Ellen, born 1835, died before 1837; Robert O., born 1838, died 1839; Joseph William, b. 1841; Thomas Richard, b. 1843; Emma, born 1845; Louisa, born 1848, died 1848.

Ta DAAAAAAA!

Richard Bridge and Mary Ashton

Many of you won't understand why I am so excited about this, but I feel like an archaeologist digging up the past. I knew that William Bridge's father was Richard Bridge, weaver, of Bolton, England. I suspected that his mother was Mary Bridge, a widow living with her son, Richard, on Shaw Street in Bolton in 1841. I now know that I was right. I sent for the death records of Mary Bridge and Richard Bridge. They arrived last week. Richard Bridge died first, in 1840. He was a weaver, and his age at death was 67 years. The informant, who registered the death, was Joseph Bridge, who resided on Rothwell Street. Mary Bridge died in 1842 at the age of 65. On the certificate it says she was the widow of Richard Bridge, weaver. The informant was, again, Joseph Bridge, who was present at the death, which occurred on Shaw Street.

I had found records for five children born to Richard and Mary Bridge of Bolton who were christened at St. Peter's church between 1800 and 1809. I also found records for three more children born to Richard Bridge and Mary (Ashton) Bridge who were christened at two different Unitarian churches. Our William was christened in 1813 at the Bank Street Unitarian church. Joseph, who reported both Richard and Mary Bridge's deaths, was one of the children christened earlier at St. Peters. So now I know that all the children I found belong to this same Richard and Mary Bridge. It helped that there were no other weavers named Richard Bridge of the same age as our Richard around Bolton at that time. Phew! Below is the family of Richard and Mary Bridge as I know it now:

Richard Bridge, born 1773, died Dec. 29, 1840, weaver. Married Dec. 12, 1796 to:
Mary Ashton, born 1777, died Dec. 22, 1842

Their 8 children: Joseph, b. 1800 (died before 1804); Hannah, b. 1802; Joseph, b. 1804 (he was the informant on his parents' death certificates); John, b. 1807; Mary, b. 1809; Betty, b. 1811; William, b. 1813 (our direct ancestor); Richard, b. 1818.

Since identifying these children as belonging to Richard and Mary Bridge, I have found spouses for Joseph (Mary Greenhalgh), John (Hannah Broughton Holt), and Richard (Ann Barlow).

In other news, I found the daughter of William Bridge and Jane Aspinall who died in 1848 at the age of 3 weeks. Her name was Louisa Bridge. Louisa's mother, Jane, died three months after Louisa due to childbed inflammation. If I had not sent for the death certificate of Jane Bridge, I may never have found this baby, so I'm very glad I did.

I'll post the families of Richard Bridge and Mary Ashton's children at a later date when I have exhausted all currently available means of identifying them. Have a happy day!

More on William Bridge

I'm addicted to genealogy! After I posted all the information I could find on William Bridge, I kept looking and found more. If you'll remember, I wondered if Jane Bridge, William's wife, died after giving birth to a fourth child. It turns out she did. The child's name was Louisa, and she died at birth or soon after. I have sent for her death certificate.

One day last week I stayed in my pajamas until 3:00 PM and looked at census records for Bolton. I started with 1841 and wrote down every Bridge family I could find. Then I tried to find those same families ten years later on the 1851 census. I was looking for relatives, specifically the parents, of William Bridge. I found some interesting things. Just down the street from William and Jane in 1841 was a woman named Mary Bridge, along with a son, Richard, Richard's wife Ann, and an older gentleman named Samuel Marsh. I got to wondering if Mary could be the widow of William's father, Richard, since she lived so close and had a son by that name. Then I found a christening record for William Bridge with the birthdate of April 1813, which matches the death certificate of William Bridge that I ordered, listing him as 57 years old at his death in early 1871. That christening record lists his parents as Richard and Mary Bridge. So I think I've found William's parents. I'll update this blog when I receive the death certificates for William, Richard, and Mary Bridge, which I have ordered.

Samuel Marsh, the lodger living with Mary Bridge and son Richard, confused me for a while, but later I found a marriage record (1700-something) for an Ann Bridge and Samuel Marsh. I believe Samuel was a widower in 1841 living with his sister-in-law, who had also been widowed.

I also found a Joseph Bridge, age 70 in 1841, who could be a brother to Richard Bridge. His family lived very near Mary Bridge and William Bridge, and the name Joseph is very prominent in the family history. When I figure out all the pieces to the puzzle, I'll let you all know.

William Bridge (1815-1871)

William Bridge was born about 1815 in Bolton, Lancashire, England. His father was Richard Bridge, a weaver. Bolton was a large city whose principle industry was the manufacture of cotton. William probably worked with his father in the cotton mills as a young man. He married Jane Aspinall, the daughter of Thomas Aspinall and Ellen Crook, about 1840. Jane's father was also a weaver. The two were living on Shaw Street, Great Bolton, in June of 1841 when the census was taken. Their oldest child, Joseph William, our direct ancestor, was only 7 weeks old at the time. William is listed as a tailor on the census. William and Jane had two other children after 1841; Thomas Richard was born in 1843, and Emma was born in 1845. At some point prior to 1846, the family moved to Derby Street and William set up his tailoring shop. In 1846 and 1848, Slater's directory for Lancashire lists William Bridge as a tailor and woollen draper with a shop on Derby Street in Bolton. I imagine the children playing on the floor and getting underfoot while their father worked. Jane Bridge died of inflamation from childbed fever on September 22, 1848, at the age of 32. At present I do not know if she died after giving birth to a fourth child, of whom there is no record, or if she became ill after Emma's birth and was chronically ill for three years before dying.


William must have been devastated at the death of his wife, but he must also have been concerned that he could not care for his children alone, because less than three months after Jane died, on December 5, 1848, he married Ann Smedley, 26, spinster daughter of James Smedley, a weaver. The couple were married in the Bank Street Chapel, a Unitarian Church, by minister Franklin Baker, with Henry and Elizabeth Higson as witnesses. Ann became an instant mother to Joseph, Thomas, and Emma, who were ages 7, 5, and 3 respectively.

In the 1855 Slater's directory, and in the Lancashire Post Office Directory of 1858, William's tailoring business is still located at 32 Derby Street. Some time between 1858 and 1861, the Bridge family moved down the street to 113 Derby Street. William is listed as a tailor and woollen draper on the 1861 census, and his children are all still living at home. Joseph William is 19 and working with his father as a tailor. Thomas Richard, 17, is also a tailor, and Emma, 15, is listed as a house servant. Some time before 1869, Joseph William took over his father's tailoring business. Slater's directory lists Joseph William Bridge as a tailor and woollen draper with his business at 113 Derby Street, the family home.

William is not listed on the 1871 census. There is a death record for a William Bridge, age 57, in the first quarter of 1871, and I found an Ann Bridge, widow, age 50, living with daughter Emma, age 25, in the coastal town of Birkdale in that year. Possibly they went to the ocean to mourn their loss. Ann later moved to be near her stepson, Thomas Richard, on the Chorley Old Road in Halliwell, on the outskirts of Bolton.

Joseph William Bridge, oldest son of William Bridge, married Henrietta Lousia Jackson in 1863. They had three children in Bolton - Louisa, William, and Frank. Louisa married John McCullough in Carman, Manitoba in 1889. Thomas Richard Bridge married Maria Lowe. They had three children - Thomas, Mary Emma, and Harry. Mary Emma died as a baby. Thomas and Maria emigrated to New Zealand, where descendants of their son, Harry, still reside. Emma, the only daughter of William Bridge, married John Bramwell, but did not have any children. After John died, Emma went to live with her stepmother, Ann, in Halliwell.

Note: In the above post, my direct ancestors are in bold.

Here is a map of Bolton. You can see Derby Street and the Chorley Old Road.

My New Blog

I decided to start a new blog entirely devoted to family history. If you are related to me, and I have an email address for you, you will get an email each time I update this blog. I will be posting spotlights on my ancestors, some of whom are also your ancestors. Feel free to copy and paste anything you find interesting or worth saving and sharing with your families. My first post will be dedicated to William Bridge, my 3rd great grandfather on my father's side. I recently joined Ancestry.com and was able to find more information about this man than I had previously. If you have questions about my research, or if you have anything to add, please make a comment by clicking on "comments" under the post. Thanks for coming, and come back often!