The oldest ancestors I have are James BRADSHAW and Nancy CHADWICK. I can’t find where I got Nancy’s name from, but I think it might have been from someone else’s tree. My database of names has quite a few that I found that way. But I’ll start with them, since I can follow Nancy down through her children.

James was born in 1807, Nancy in 1806. Both were from an area know as Little and Great Marsden. A description of the area says “Marsden, a township and two chapelries in Whalley parish, Lancashire. The township consists of the two chapelries, called Little M. and Great M”. In various census records its shown in different ways and eventually becomes Brierfield. This was a bit confusing to me when I started researching. There were quarries, and coal mines and later came the cotton mills.

James and Nancy were married in November of 1825.

They had seven children starting with William born in 1827, followed by John 1833, Elizabeth 1835, Henry 1837 (who was the great, great grandfather of my dad) , Sarah 1841, James 1843 and Thomas 1846. They all were born in Great and Little Marsden, Lancashire.

In the 1841 census there was no sign of James, but Nancy was living with 5 of her children on Dark Lane in Little Marsden. The two younger children, James and Thomas, are not shown on this census but are on the next one. So they must have been absent from the home when the census was taken. But James senior is not there either, and he doesn’t appear again. To say this branch of the family is illusive is an understatement. Maybe Dad didn’t know anything after all.