Shetland link with Audlem

Philip Manley of Gulberwick, Shetland has contacted Audlem Online about his ancestors that lived in Audlem. He wrote: "I am researching my family history and have traced my ancestors back to the 1841 census being in Audlem. The family unit was Samuel and Charlotte Manley, with 2 sons and a daughter. Edwin Manley was the second son, my Great (x5) Grandfather. The family were Coopers by trade. Is there any way to further investigate their life?"

Philip added that he was aware of the Audlem District History Society and, as so often in genealogy enquiries, his query was forwarded to Celia Bloor, the society's secretary, who was able to provide the answers and clues for further research.

She responded to Philip: "You can find exactly where Samuel lived by searching for 'Cheshire Tithe Maps'. The maps have been digitised and compared with modern ones and all the owners and occupiers for the whole county are listed. The date of this is close to 1841, e.g.1838 for some places. Also 6 trade directories of Cheshire are on line – try the Cheshire Record Office site.

"The big bonus is that Samuel Manley was a Constable of the parish of Audlem (not a policeman but a pillar of the community) in 1835/6 at least. This has been noted from the Audlem 'Town book' kept at Chester," Celia added. "I assume you know where they were in 1851 because I have an Edwin Manley age 5 in that year but his father is Thomas, a shoemaker. I don't have the 1841 census in my card file (we entered the 1851 and 61 censuses manually before the computers were around!)."

All this provides an interesting link between the generations in a rural spot in the Shetlands (Gulberwick is south west of Lerwick, the islands' capital) and a rural spot in south Cheshire.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.