Gartsides from the mid 1700s

My Gartside line descended from JOHN Gartside (1756 - 1800) and HANNAH Lees (1762 - 1846)

I knew with certainty that I had the correct line going back to MARTHA'S grandparents, BEN Gartside and BETTY Scholefield but, beyond that, there was a false trail. I'd already wasted much time and effort, in the early days, following another wrong assumption that fitted perfectly (almost!) but which turned out to be quite wrong when I dug a little deeper. I didn't want to make the same mistake again.

Many family trees that I came across on-line recorded BEN as the son of John Gartside and Susannah Barker. This couple did have a son 'Ben' baptised 1788/08/30 .....chr. of 'Ben' at St Chad, Saddleworth; "son of John Gartside and Susannah; yeoman; Castleshaw". This fitted with BEN's known age, there were no burials or other marriages that might have been him and it was the right area of Saddleworth. It was easy to believe that BEN was their son - there were no others that appeared to fit the bill. However, John and Susannah were obviously substantial members of the Gartside family but BEN and his family were obviously not at all affluent. John died in 1812 so I looked at his will. It ran to many pages and he mentioned children (both alive and dead), grandchildren and sons-in-law amongst his many bequests. He was a man with a wide number of business interests and possessions but there was no mention of son 'Ben', at all. I was sure that he would have been mentioned, if only to deny him any part of the inheritance, if he was still alive. I returned to the old Parish Records to see what I'd missed.

The baptisms at St Thomas, Friarmere (Heights Chapel) and some of the Non-conformist chapels were not available on the usual internet sites so it was back to the Local Studies Library and trawling through Parish Records on the film readers; and he was there! I had my 'Eureka moment'! Baptised at St Thomas, Friarmere. (Heights Chapel), BEN was baptised in 1789 on Jun 7th, his father was recorded as John Gartside, his mother as Hannah and his birthplace as Castleshaw. A plus factor was that BEN's mother's maiden name was Lees and his second daughter was baptised with 'Lees' as her middle name and a later daughter was baptised as 'Hannah Lees Gartside'.

Trying to go back a generation to find JOHN's father was more difficult. There are those records that fit known facts but other records, telling a different story, might have been lost or not even existed.

This, then, is the record of my extended Gartside Family from Castleshaw in Saddleworth, Yorkshire which I have divided into more manageable 'chunks'.

Part 5

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through son
BEN Gartside & BETTY Scholefield
through son
JOHN Gartside & MARTHA Blakeley
& their children
Edwin, Emma, Alice Wright and Margaret,

Part 6

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through son
BEN Gartside & BETTY Scholefield
through son
JOHN Gartside & MARTHA Blakeley
& their children
Edwin, Mary, Ben and John.

Part 7

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through son
BEN Gartside & BETTY Scholefield
through son
JOHN Gartside & MARTHA Blakeley
& their children
MARTHA and Lucy

Part 8

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through son
BEN Gartside & BETTY Scholefield
& their children:
Frances and Charles

Part 9

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through son
BEN Gartside & BETTY Scholefield
& their son:
Ben

Part 10

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through son
BEN Gartside & BETTY Scholefield
& their children:
Alfred and Hannah Lees,

Part 11

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through son
BEN Gartside & BETTY Scholefield
& their children::
Sarah Ann and Frederick.

Part 12

JOHN Gartside & HANNAH Lees
descendants through their children: :
Nanny, Jesse, Mary and Wright