In my previous post I wrote about how to locate an address and determine what the historic living conditions were like. In this post I will explain how to apply these techniques when researching a small town.
When I first began research I found myself glossing over my ancestors that lived in cities and focusing on the ones that lived in small towns. What I quickly learned is that there is less socio-economic data and maps available for smaller localities. Just because less resources are available does not mean that it is impossible to find the answers to your questions.
In this example we will be looking at where my great-grandmother and her family were living during the 1911 census. This census was of particular interest to me as it was the last known record of her family's life in England prior to their immigration to Canada. I wanted to understand how hard it would have been to live on Speakman St in Leigh, Lancashire, England. I knew that the house was crowded (11 people living in 4 rooms), and that the working family members were employed in the coal and cotton industries. From this information I had made the assumption that they were not among the upper classes, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know where their house was located on a map. I wanted to get a better idea of how far they travelled to attend work and school. I wanted to understand just how hard it would have been to live in that house and on that street.
I started by running a google search to see if I could locate the street in Google Maps but didnt have any luck. The street had either been renamed or demolished. I would have to use a combination of historic maps and census information to locate the street.
Finding a map for small towns can be a challenge, but I always seem to have good luck with The National Library of Scotland. Despite the site name, they boast a wide collection of maps for England.
I was surprised to discover that Speakman St was not listed in any maps for the Leigh area (both before and after the census was taken)! This is when I began to rely more heavily on the neighbouring and cross streets mentioned in the census. Part of what makes the 1911 census a little more difficult to work with is that the households are recorded on their own separate pages. This means that the enumerators often did not make note of cross streets and land marks when recording the data. I still wanted to make the most of what I had in the way of information, so I began to flip forward and backward several pages from where I had found my family in the census. I took note of the neighbouring streets and located them on the map.
I ended up identifying the three major surrounding streets as:
- Nel Pan Lane
- West Leigh Lane
- Smallbrook Lane
By using the following map, I was able to identify that Speakman St must have been on the right hand side of the map because West Leigh Lane was frequently mentioned in the surrounding census records. I then went ahead and began to check off each of the small streets that extended off each of the above main streets. This allowed me to identify what other streets were not readily identifiable on the map. I was able to further reduce the number of unknown streets by cross referencing the 1908 map against a current map (notice how the below map is slightly faded to show the current geography). Before focusing in on a small handful of streets I wanted to make sure that each of them matched what I knew from the census. According to Find My Past, only 6 household were registered in the 1911 census and all of them had odd numbered addresses. This tells me that not only was the street relatively short but that there were only homes on one side of the street.
1908 Ordnance Survey of West Leigh highlighting the 3 potential locations of Speakman St Next, I used a two newspaper articles to better understanding the surrounding geography. In the 1904 article the following exert allowed me to identify which street Speakman St was most likely to branch off of.
"[...] including the widening of Nel Pan Lane from the Nel Pan Bridge to Speakman Street, to which amended plan Mr Selby had previously agreed" - Leigh Chronicle & Weekly Advertiser (May 6 1904)
The above exert told me that Speakman St likely extended off of Nel Pan Lane and was situated in relatively close proximity to the Nel Pan Bridge. Using this information I was able to eliminate option 1 because it did not extend off of Nel Pan Lane and therefore would not have been used as a point of reference in the above exert.
This left me with options 2 and 3. They were located on opposite sides of the Nel Pan Bridge, which meant I would need another identifying piece of information to make my decision. The following exert from a second article from 1908, that described the drowning of a young boy, provided me with the identifier that I needed.
"[...] they afterwards went away towards the brook at the end of Speakman Street, near where Lynch's father lived." - Leigh Chronicle & Weekly Advertiser (Jan 10 1908)
Its a little difficult to see on the above map, but the West Leigh Brook runs vertically slightly to the right of the center of the map - right of Nel Pan Bridge. Option 3 can be eliminated because it is no where near the brook. Despite option 2 not directly backing on to the brook, it is still in close enough proximity to meet the description provided by the 1908 article, thus we can conclude that this is the most likely location of Speakman St.
Summary:
So what techniques did I use above to identify where my great grandmother was living during 1911?
1. Census data
This is where my search began! I got the street name and address and began searching for it on modern maps. When that was unsuccessful I looked for clues in the surrounding census entries (ie. number of houses, surrounding streets, landmarks, etc.)
2. Events in newspapers
I used the British Newspaper Archive to search for articles that mentioned the street. This allowed me to fill in the gaps that the census data left. (ie. I learned that the street was close to a bridge and a brook)
3. Historical maps
This is by far the MOST important piece of information to find when looking for an extinct address! Even if the street is not listed by name (as was often the case for small/short streets), it will still allow you to identify a smaller search area.
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