Week 68 -- WHAT A WEEK!!!!

The week in Chorley, Lancashire started out with our attending the LDS Church in Wigan, as we mentioned in last week's blog.  Wigan is full of history for Annie's family. We spent Sunday evening in the Chorley Family History Center working on our power points for Saturday's family history fair.  We also met with the planning committee from Chorley Stake to finalize the event.  We were more than impressed with the quality of leaders and their depth of planning and promoting this fair. 

Wigan Library

Monday and Tuesday we spent the days in the Wigan library to find out more about Annie's family.  We searched non-conformist church records and we located some distant branches of the family there.  Paul spent the days tracing streets that the Windus and the Ascroft families lived on.  He was successful in finding their locations which helped to link more information as the week moved forward. . He also learned where to find  further records to help us.

Research at Wigan Library

Wigan is famous for it's meat pies.  We enjoyed one of their meat pies for lunch on Monday.  Wigan residences are known as "pie eaters".  Most people think this is because of the meat pies, but  history tells that it really refers to"humble pie".  Due to the mine strikes of 1926, Wigan miners were starved back to work before their counter parts in surrounding towns.  It is said that they ate "humble pie" in returning to work first.

Wigan Pie Eater

Wigan Town Hall

St Aiden, Billinge Parish Church

All Saints, Wigan Parish Church

St Thomas. Upholland Parish Church

We spent Monday evening back at the Chorley FHC working on our presentations.  Tuesday evening we walked around the center of Wigan town and found the Wigan parish church where many ancestral christenings and marriages took place. We made it back to Chorley in time to do a session in the Preston Temple before we went to bed very tired.  We were blessed to be asked to be the witnesses on the session.

Wednesday and Thursday we traveled to Leigh where the Wigan Archives is located.  Annie has been trying to find the birth of Fanny Rimmer who married Henry Windus in Billinge, in 1791.  She looked at the original Wigan Parish records for the late 1700's and early 1800's.  She found the birth of John Windus (Winders)  son of Henry and Fanny.  We learned two important new facts from looking at the original

Wigan Archives @ Leigh

records that are not in the indexed information of this birth.  We found he was listed as the 3rd son.  We only know of William and John.  Now comes the challenge of finding more children.  We also learned that Fanny's Parents were Richard and Ann Rymer.  This is a big step in locating Fanny's birth.  We then found on Ancestry.com that there is a Richard and Ann Rymer that had children in Ormskirk.  Ormskirk is between Billinge and Halsall.  Halsall is where Henry was born and so it all fit together.  There were 3 children listed with a 5 year break between 1765 and 1770.  These are the probable years that Fanny would have been born, since Henry was born in 1768 and they married in 1791.  Annie thinks Fanny might be a child of theirs that has not been indexed correctly.  Annie's self appointed next job is to look through the microfilm of the original records (at LFHC) and see if Fanny is there.

Paul found  two old maps showing the streets that the ancestors lived on. He also found some fun court records dealing with Henry Windus and Fanny.  We also noted that Henry's being in the Navy was due to a conscription assignment given to the local communities by the government.  More fun documents

Parish Records at Wigan Arichives in Leigh

We visited the Lower Ince Cemetary after the Archive closed on Wednesday.  We had records of 3 ancestors being buried there.  We located the area that their graves were and even the exact location of two, but there were no head stones.  Sunday we had arranged to spend Wednesday evening with a Wigan ward member, Brother Aspee.  He volunteered to show us around Wigan, Billinge and Upholland.  Annie was so excited to see all 3 Parish church's that were the place of baptism and marriage of many ancestors.

Thursday evening Paul worked on his power point presentation while Annie rested.  She was totally exhausted.  All of the family history research stuff is hard work for her, but it is Paul's fun, Annie has enjoyed it, but it does tire her out.

Friday we were on our way to Preston to the Lancashire Records Office.  We had two things we wanted to find and get copies. One was a will of a Richard Rymer in Wigan about 1820.  It proved to not help us.  The other one was a court ordered removal of Fanny Windus and her son William to leave UpHolland and return to Halsall due to the fact that she needed government help. Her husband, Henry was serving in the Royal Navy and could not provide.  All Annie had to do was say to Paul, "I don't think she actually went even when they told her to".  That was his invitation to find out the truth and he followed court papers through the rest of 1797 and found that Annie's premonition was correct.  He found Fanny's appeal of the order and then another court hearing where the judge said that the order was "quashed, anhilated and made void".  Henry was in the Royal Navy and Fanny had the right to stay. Needless to say we spent the entire day at the records office.

Lancashire Records Office

Friday evening we went to Avenham  Park and  the River Ribble where Heber C Kimmball , Orson Hyde, Willard Richards and Joseph Fielding performed the first LDS baptisms in England.

River Ribble

Small part of the Chorley FH Fair

Saturday we participated in the Chorley Area Family History Fair.  Paul taught 3 classes and Annie taught one class.  We both spent a lot of time helping with questions and problems, It was an amazing event where about 400 people attended.

Sunday morning we attended sacrament meeting in Chorley and then headed home by way of our own choice detour.  We went to Ormskirk and Halsall.  Ormskirk was probably where Fanny was baptized,  (Hope to confirm that this week).  St Cuthbert, Halsall  chapel is where William Windus,  the father of Henry was the minister.  Some interesting information we found is that the minister serving with William Windus was Henry Mourdant. William's son Henry was actually named, Henry Mourdant Windus -- wonder why.

St. Cuthbert, Halsall Parish Church

Ormskirk Parish Church

One of the highlights of this trip was enjoying all of the beauty of this part of London.  Flowers were blooming.  Green trees and fields were everywhere.  England is truly a beautiful country.

Beautiful flowers outside
Accommodation Center,
Preston Temple

Our favorite view of the Preston Temple
through the arch in the walk way.

Happy Birthday this week to Madalyn.              



We know that we must all "Hasten the Work" in these latter days.  This includes hastening the temple work for the dead.  We know our calling to help with this is what the Lord wants us to do.  We love our work.  We are grateful for this opportunity. 

Love you all and miss you tons,

Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Paul and Annie, Elder and Sister Smart

Flowers in UpHolland Church grounds

Could this be why Paul isn't in more of our pictures?