Late last night I was wandering around the net and looking for inspiration in my Favourites list, when I spied a link to the Lancashire Online Parish Clerks, another of my favourite free sites created by generous volunteers. This site lists transcriptions, as you would expect, of many pre-1837 bmds for the county. Much of the information is also available on the Family Search site, but these are (I believe) new transcriptions - and every source of information is worth checking, you might just find that one extra snippet of information that fits everything together.
I had decided to search the whole county for Salthouse marriages and the database returned several pages of results. Right at the very end - in 1836 - one name jumped off the screen and lit up in front of my eyes: "Moses Chappell!" I exclaimed. "Mmmm", said the one member of my family still trying to stay awake - they are all used to such exclamations and take little notice these days...
Moses Chappell. He was a witness to the wedding of Ellen Salthouse and James Massey Ashcroft at the Collegiate Church, Manchester on the 30th May 1836.
The story begins with the death certificate of my great, great, grandmother, Sophia Salthouse (widow of Anthony Salthouse), who died at Hulme, Manchester on the 1st April 1859. The registrar was notified of her death by James Chappell. Who was he? His full name name proved to be James Light Salthouse Chappell - a pretty good clue that he was a relative of some kind! Following his life forward through the census returns and trade directories was a joy, but tracing his ancestry was more difficult. James Chappell was born in 1827, the son of Moses Chappell and Sarah - but Sarah who?
Over time I have searched and re-searched the relevant websites but no suitable Sarah was ever found, even less a Sarah Salthouse. So last night I looked, instead, for the birth of Ellen Salthouse and she proved to be a hitherto unknown daughter of Anthony and Sophia Salthouse of Didsbury; when she married she became Mrs Ashcroft - and Moses Chappell witnessed that marriage. Checking back through my records I noticed that on one census an Annie J Ashcroft was recorded as the niece of Sarah Chappell. Still with me on this? One final search for Moses Chappell's wife, presumed to be a Sarah Salthouse, and the IGI turned up just one record for the time and place - Sarah Salthouse, daughter of Anthony Salthouse and Sophia, previously unknown to me despite many trawls of the IGI.
Now I can finally link the Salthouse and Chappell families. Anthony Salthouse and Sophia of Didsbury had several children, one of their daughters, Sarah Salthouse, married Moses Chappell; another daughter, Ellen Salthouse, married James Massey Ashcroft and Moses Chappell was one of the witnesses to their marriage. Sophia Salthouse was probably widowed before 1837 and spent the next 20 years employed as a monthly nurse. In 1859 she was living at Hulme and her nearest family was her grandson-in-law, James Chappell, who lived just around the corner and, I assume, looked after Sophia during the illnesses and when she died and who notified the registrar of her death.
The main mystery has been solved, just some loose ends for further research. A result!
