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- [S9905] Wood, Jackie, Jackie Wood, 21 Oct 2016>, "Re: Gregson and Blackburn(e)," (Reliability: 3).
Morning Phil,
I am so glad that my "interference" paid off! Great news.
If I could just give you a brief outline of my Morris brick wall problem, maybe it might ring a bell with you .... here's hoping anyway!
My great grandparents, Ellen Morris & William Lord married at St Peter's (not the Halliwell one) in Bolton in 1874. Her father, James Morris, is said to be a quarryman. Ellen's birth cert has him as an engineer. Her mother's maiden name was Ann Platt, born Upton, Cheshire (there are 3 Uptons in Cheshire...!). No marriage has been found for James & Ann so far so their parents are unknown. James, Ann & Ellen Morris are nowhere to be found on any census until 1881 when William & Ellen are married & her mother Ann is living with them & is a widow. James Morris is a total enigma. Back to the Morris/Lord marriage - Ellen's residence is said to be 31 Chorley New Road, Bolton - in 1841 that's where William Morris & his sister Mary Ann are living, but in 1871 it's a Dutton family (George Dutton is a chemist/druggist/stamp distributor) who are living there with no sign of a Morris. The witnesses to Ellen & William's marriage are both Duttons but they are not the residents of no.31. William & Ellen had 9 children & not one of them seems to have known anything about Ellen's background. My grandfather was given Morris as a middle name & my Dad was christened Morris & as I have spent eight years trying to resolve this issue, I decided to have a DNA test, just in case it provided the missing link. Guess what? - the only result that I matched with in this country (the rest are in the USA & all very distant cousins) suggested that this tree owner & myself were approximately 4th cousins meaning we share (approx) ggg grandparents. She has Morrises in that position on her tree but has really only worked on her own direct ancestor, Ralph Morris. He has a brother, James, of about the right age for my purposes but my own research has married him off (3 times) so he doesn't appear to be mine. My great grandmother, Ellen, was a secret Catholic (my great grandfather left her for a time when he found out many years into their marriage) but whether that is significant or not is unknown. The gist of this really is that I'm trying to determine whether the Ralph Morris family line is in any way connected to the Chorley New Road Morris clan.
Anyway Phil, if any of the above triggers off any memory with you please let me know ......
Kind regards
Jackie
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