Behind My Hindleys Phyl Sheppard traces her family ancestry back ...

INTRODUCTION
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INTRODUCTION
I have written my story as from the earliest date found and travelled steadily
forward until ‘modern times’ - although this is the reverse of the way the
research is done, it is easier for the reader to grasp. The only drawback to
this method is that I feel so much of the tedium and excitement of our search
may have been lost. With this in mind, I’ll endeavour to retrace our journey.
It was 10 years ago, and starting with a small amount of information, that we
began our research for our Family Tree.
We were able to find the birth of Grand-dad William Thomas from the GRO
Indexes, having a rough idea of the date of his birth - even so it still took a
lot of searching. We discovered the names of his parents from their
Gravestone in Flaybrick Cemetery, Birkenhead. After receiving the birth
certificate of William Thomas, we were also able to see where he was born,
the maiden name of his mother and the occupation of his father.
We went to the Greater Manchester Record Office to look at the Marriage
Indexes. After two hours, at least, on this occasion, we were just about to
give up and go home, feeling very frustrated. Then I thought “let’s just look
at another reel, even if this would make James a bit young for marriage”.
Almost at once I found the name of Sarah Jones (his mother’s name), the
District of marriage was an area I had only vaguely heard of. Holding my
breath I looked for James Hindley (his father) even though, at this time, he
would be only 19. Both Districts and numbers agreed! We had found their
marriage at last - the feeling of elation is hard to describe, but I can still
remember the occasion. Suddenly, gone was the feeling of exasperation and
weariness, not to mention sore and tired eyes. This feeling of elation was to
happen enough times during the following years of search to make it all
worth-while. The next thing was to send for their Wedding Certificate. When
we received this we had found who Grand-dad Hindley’s Grandfather and
Grandmother were. The exciting part was finding that the name of his
Grandfather was Ellis. The name Ellis was to be a tremendous help in our
search as was the fact that the family stayed in Cheshire so much of the
time.