British Bonanza

For about the past 24 hours, I've been consumed with a website. My marathon session started when I asked a question on the Cheshire (England) list about the National Burial Index (NBI) CD. The latest CD costs about $50 and has 18,000,000 burials on it. Before I plunked down my cash, I wanted to know what the coverage was for Cheshire.

In response to my query, I received lots of information, all of which lead me to the conclusion that I'm not interested in the NBI CD right now. I was most grateful for the help. Trying to figure out what to buy and what to do in another country can be a challenge.

One gentleman, Adrian Bruce, replied after all of the flurry of emails had pretty much subsided. He suggested that I visit the Bereavement Services page of the Tameside website. I'm familiar with the website. In England, the county and city councils all have websites that provide their citizens with government-related information and services. In past visits, I hadn't found much of interest for me.

On faith, I followed Adrian's instructions to look for Family History - Burial and Cremation Records. Below the link is a Search the Records link for 175,000 burial and cremation records from Tameside MBC cemeteries. The entries cover Ashton (Hurst), Audenshaw, Denton, Dukinfield, Droylsden, Hyde, Mottram and Mossley. I've had Dodd and Anderson relatives living in many of these places. So I gave it a whirl...OMG! Here's what I hit.

Albert Dodd (b.18 Apr 1866 Dukinfield d. 1940). He's buried in Ashton Cemetery, Section B, Grave 523. His appointment date was 15 Jan 1940, which I assume is the day he was brought to the cemetery. Albert's grave reference is a link. Click it and you find out who else is buried in the grave with him.

Mary Jane Dodd (b. 1867 Ashton Under Lyne d. 1943 (new info!). I knew from English census entries that Albert was married to a Mary Jane, and I knew the couple had the following children: Sarah Jane, Albert, John William, Alice, and Nellie.

Alice (Dodd) Mottram (b. 1898 Ashton Under Lyne d. 1967 (new info!). Alice's appointment date was 11 Mar 1967. Using Cheshire BMD, I had narrowed down possible marriages for Alice and one of them was to a William Hector Baden Mottram. I can now look at ordering certificates with a bit of assurance that I'm on the right track.

Glenys Dodd was the last person included in the grave site. Her appointment was 22 Jan 1942. I'm not sure who Glenys is. I'm assuming she's a granddaughter that I've yet to discover. In all of this I haven't stopped to check Cheshire BMD to see what her date of birth might be.

I've been in look up overload as a result of this initial success. Here's a list of everyone at the website that I've found so far:

George Duncan Dodd (b. 17 Nov 1873 Dukinfield d. 1918 Ashton Town)

Robert Dodd (b. 3 Dec 1871 Dukinfield d. 1915) w/wife Alice (Gillell) Dodd (d. 1915)

Sylvia (Storer) Dodd (Mrs. John William Dodd) (b. 1908 Ashton Under Lyne d. 1999 Ashton) The list includes John William Dodd's but none of them look like the right one.

Agnes Eleanor (Kay) Gough (b. 1924 Stalybridge d. 2007)

Norman Gough (b. 1920 Stalybridge d. 1 Apr 2000 Ashton Under Lyne)

Isaac Henshaw (b. 1891 Dukinfield d. 1929)

Jane Anderson (Smith) Henshaw (b. 1893 Ashton Under Lyne d. 1961 Ashton and Mossley)

James Taylor Kay (b. 1892 Ashton Under Lyne d. 1957)

Dinah (Smith) Kay (b. 1895 Ashton Under Lyne d. 13 Oct 1979)

I'm sure I still have discoveries to make at the Tameside website but I'm just overwhelmed at the moment. I'm going to have to do so much backtracking to get all of the possible records.

And on ordering certificates...When you use an intermediary to order certificates, they cost north of 12 pounds (about $20). So being pretty sure you are ordering the right certificate is important if you don't want to spend a fortune on these things. In the past, I have ordered two and got one that was right and one that wasn't...batting 50/50 at these prices made me shy about ordering without some pretty good evidence that I'm ordering the right certificate. Using the Tameside website has given me lots of assurance. So I guess it's time to pull out the credit card.

I sent a great big thank you to Adrian and an open ended offer if he ever needs any info on dealing with research in the U.S. It doesn't seem like much given what I've gotten from Adrian's bit of kindness to me.