A different world - Bolton in the 1950s

My mum grew up in Bolton in the 1950s. I find it strange to imagine those early post-war years with rationed food and very tight budgets.

My grandparents did well for themselves and left Bolton to move to Blackburn - seen as a move upwards then, I believe - to run a newspaper shop. Being shop managers was quite an achievement for two people born into poverty: Grandma in a back-to-back two-up, two-down in Bolton (demolished 1934 for being a slum) and Granddad from the toughest neighbourhood of Glasgow tenements.

These evocative black and white photographs  published today by the BBC of 1950s Bolton inspire a sense of wonder  in me: 60 years on we live in such a different world of technology and plenty, mechanisation and sanitation - would any of the people in the photos even recognise their home town?

An ancestor called Denzill?

My father's only paternal cousin is a lady called Denzyl, born in 1931. We have no idea how her parents came up with such an unusual name but she is universally known as Den.

Understandably, I thought Den would be the only Denzyl in the family tree! I was proved wrong (as so often happens in family tree hunting) when I discovered an ancestor in 17th century Lincolnshire noted in the registers of Horsington (near Woodhall Spa) as Denzill Turner. He is my great x9 grandfather.

Denzill appears to be part of a Turner family that has links with the village for several generations, including at least one more Denzill.

'My' Denzill's son James was baptised at Horsington in February 1688 - just months before The Glorious Revolution; see below for William of Orange landing at Brixham on 5 November 1688 - and it was his great, great granddaughter Mary Crowston (born Hall) who died in Whaplode in 1860, the village in which my father was baptised and his cousin Denzyl spent many of her childhood years.

Denzil apparently means 'fort' in Old English.

Long lost cousins - found at last

Further to my earlier post about finding my grandmother's maternal aunt Ada, I have now received images of Ada and her husband, Edward Holgarth. Ada (1886-1943) and Bertha were two of the five children of Squire Chadwick (1857-1915) and his common law wife Sophia Haywood, or Heywood (1852-1901). Their other children were Jane (born 1881); Squire, who died aged 9 in 1899; and Martha (1884-1926), whose will named Edward Holgarth as executor.

Ada(above) and her husband, Edward (below) - my great grandmother's older sister.

And here is my great grandmother Bertha Meehan (born Chadwick), 1893-1925, at work in the weaving shed with two pals (she is on the left).

Thanks again to Ancestry and GenesReunited for helping rejoin our family after 86 years!