Family History
© Craig Thornber, England, United Kingdom Main Site Address: https://www.thornber.net/
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Anne Williamson has kindly provided me with the following information on a Thornber family in Bolton. I have not previously collected data from this area and Anne's information relates to comparitively recent times, i.e. late 19th to early 21st centuries.
John Thornber, born 5 January 1899 married Elsie Holstead on 2 September 1922 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church Bolton. At the time he lived in Shipton Street Bolton and then later at Essingdon Street until his death 25 April 1964. Elsie lived there until her death on 30 November 1974. They had son, Bernard born 19 October 1934, who died on 7 January 2015. There were also two daughters. Anne has copies of John's marriage and death certificates.
John's parents were Thomas Thornber and Ellen Ritson. When Ellen died, Thomas married Florence Dobikins. Thomas is thought to have died in 1928.
This family were Catholics. Most of our early records come from Anglican Churches up until 1837, when General Registration began. Baptisms and burials were carried out at some Nonconformist Chapels prior to 1837. From that time, my information is also from birth, marriage and death certificates and the census returns every ten years from 1841. There were no Catholic churches in England from the time of the Reformation until the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. Some Catholic gentry had chapels in their houses. It was not compulsory for children to be baptised and all family historians encounter the problems that this causes. Catholic children might be baptised by travelling priests. However, it was compulsory for all faiths except Quakers and Jews to be married in the Anglican Church from the time of Lord Hardwick's Marriage Act of 1754. Moreover, Catholics were buried in Anglican churches until they had their own churches from 1829 or until the advent of municipal cemeteries. As a result of these issues, there are always gaps in baptism or birth data for Catholics prior to 1837. The Lancashire County Archive in Bow Lane, Preston, has volumes of The Catholic Record Society, which help to fill the gap in other sources. I recall that entries are in Latin including the Latinised versions of Christian names so, for example, John is recorded as Johannes and William as Gulielmus.
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