Monday, July 20, 2009

Belshaw Baldwin Marriage Certificate

This post has been by way of a test to see if I can recover images as images from images stored in word documents. I find that if I copy them to Livewriter, post as a draft, I can then save back as an image.

This is a copy of my great grandparents' wedding certificate.

James Belshaw - this makes me the fourth James Belshaw in a direct line - married Ellen Baldwin at the Parish Church in Wigan, 27 January 1850.

If you look at the certificate - I hope that by clicking on it it becomes readable - you can see that both James and Ellen were illiterate as were the witnesses. Each made his or her mark. This was not unusual.

James gives his occupation as collier, the occupation for both fathers is given as labourer.

The home towns are given as Ince and Wigan. Ince is just next to Wigan.

When I get a chance I must investigate the geography properly. I have been to Wigan, but then I knew far less than I do now.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, the image enlarges on clicking. George Orwell wrote a book that I read many years ago called 'The Road to Wigan Pier' (or something similar). In it, (I am going by memory here), he describes doing a short stint as a coal-miner at Wigan in the thirties, and the conditions under which the miners worked.

Jim Belshaw said...

Hi anon, and thanks. Yes, Orwell's Road to Wigan Pier is something of a classic on the struggles of working class life in the depression years.