PORTER GENEALOGY and HISTORY: A Journey of Generations

INFORMATION

The Porter families covered in this blog are focussed in the Parishes of Standish, Croston, Leyland in Lancashire and Slaidburn, Whitewell (Whalley) in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and environs. The families researched covered the period 1565 to 1800. More parishes will be added to the blog with information and names will be included in Porter Name Database (see link in right hand column) with sources.

Anyone wishing to contribute to this database please provide names and sources. Only sourced information will be added. Contact me at the email listed above.

The following is a list of families that are associated with the Porter Families of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Canada:

Booth, Baldwin, Brinand/Brennand, Catrowe, Device/Deves/Davie/Davies (Pendleton), Hill, Holgate, Kendal, Langton/Longton, Laycock, Lightbound/Lightbourn/Lighbourne/Lightbown/Lightbowne, Martin/MacMartin/Martinus, O'Neill/McNeill, Pomfret, Rhodes, Robinson, Sellers/Sellars, Steele, Waddington.

Master tree (Family ad Infinitum) which includes all families, is available by invitation. This tree contains over 10,000 entries, sources, photos, documents, etc. If you are related to any of these families and wish to have access, grateful you provide your connection and I will invite you to the tree.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

The Slaidburn Angel by Sheelagh Wittaker

There is a fascinating book written by Sheelagh Wittaker about the death of a toddler near Slaidburn , Lancashire, in 1885, called The Slaidburn Angel.

"While researching her ancestry on the Internet one gloomy evening, Penny is astonished by what she finds. Urgently, she instructs her sister Sheelagh, “Search ‘Slaidburn Suspected Child Murder!’ Now!” So begins a remarkable story within a story spanning more than a century.

In 1885 Yorkshire, sisters Grace and Isabella, accused of murdering Grace’s secret illegitimate toddler, were on trial for their lives. A sadly neglected two-year-old boy was dead following a failed attempt to lodge him at a workhouse. A tense and sensational trial followed in Victorian-era Leeds.
Sheelagh and Penny began keenly re-investigating these events. They feel personally involved because a prosecution witness at the murder trial, nine-year-old Margaret Isherwood, would later become their grandmother. The book grips us with dramatic events, but also touches us with the abiding loyalty of sisterhood, the desperate power of our need for love, and the crazy things that it can make us do."

http://virl.bc.ca/…/author-m-sheelagh-whittaker-and-her-new…

The interest in the book comes from the relationship between Grace and Porter relatives - Thomas Rushton and Mary Isherwood Rushton. Grace married John Isherwood, a widower and Mary's brother. I suspect the horse and trap that Grace borrowed was from Tom and Mary Rushton. One can only speculate their thoughts and feelings about their unintentional part in the story.

Thomas Rushton is my second cousin, three times removed.