This lovely old photo I bought from eBay back in January, I just thought she looked rather a nice lady, and there was a name on the back. I thought that Eliza looked about 30ish. It was difficult to judge as often Victorian people looked older than they actually were. So, as this style of dress was in the 1870s, she was likely born in the 1840s.

Not just a name but also written on the back is “4th daughter of Alfred Buckley” which definitely could be helpful.

After starting a small tree with Eliza and a father called Alfred, I searched the records by putting in Eliza Buckley (exact) born in 1845 with 5 years each way, living in Oldham, Lancashire, and adding a father called Alfred (exact). That gave me four results on Ancestry, 1851, 1861, and 1871 census records and a Baptism record for Eliza dated 14 Feb 1847 St John the Baptist, Hey, Lees, Lancashire, England. Looking at them, they just felt right. Obviously, I couldn’t be totally sure without certificates, but I’m as sure as I can be.

As you can see above, Cecilia, age 21, and Eliza, age 14, were both Milliners. As the only boy, Radcliff, named after his Paternal Grandfather, followed in his father’s footsteps and was a Blacksmith, I checked, and Rad/tcliff Buckley Afreds’s father was also a Blacksmith.

Eliza is still living at home with both her parents and is still a Milliner with Eliza’s youngest sister, Edith Emily, as her assistant. I would imagine that Eliza most likely made the hat she was wearing in the photo taken at the studios of Gartside (James) and Risley, Oldham, Lancashire.

Eliza Buckley was born in January 1847 in Lancashire, Lancashire, her father was Alfred 1803-1888 and her mother was Hannah (Newton) 1808-1886. She had one brother and five sisters. Eliza never married and died in March 1898, she was 50. Here are the seven children of Alfred and Hannah.

As you can see here above, the second-born daughter, Mary, was just 16 when she died, which is why whoever wrote on the back of the photo thought that Eliza was Alfred’s 4th daughter. Mary’s cause of death was ‘Continued fever’ how dreadful at that young age, could it have been Cholera or Typhoid, very sad.

Alfred Buckley was born in 1803 in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of Ratcliffe Buckley, Blacksmith and Hannah Broadbent. He married Hannah Newton on 3 October 1830 in Mottram In Longdendale, Cheshire. He died on 21 January 1888 in Lancashire, Lancashire, he was 85 years old.

Hannah Newton was born in 1808 in Lees, Lancashire, the daughter of Mary and Joshua, a Cotton Spinner. Hannah died on 15 March 1886 in Lancashire, she was 78 years old.

Alfred and Hannah’s youngest daughter Emily married Thomas Ogden in April of 1882, she gave birth to a son Samuel the following year, then in December 1884 she died soon after the birth of a daughter Edith Emily. Emily was just 34 years old. Little Edith sadly died just after her first birthday and Thomas remarried and went on to have several children by his second wife Hannah.

The Church below, St John the Baptist, Hey in Lancashire witnessed several Baptisms, Marriages and Funeral services of the family. Mary and her younger sister Emily were buried there, as was Emily’s one-year-old daughter Edith Emily.

Here’s the direct link to the Online Parish Clerks of Lancashire website: Lancashire OPC Website OPC websites are always a great source of Family History/Genealogy information for different Counties.

Alfred and Hannah’s only son continued in the Cotton Industry after starting off as a Blacksmith and became a ‘General Smith and Machinist, a Repairer of Cotton Machinery’ He married Ester Lees and had one son, James Alfred, who took a different path and became a Chemist, Patent Medicine Vendor.’ Later described as a Chemist/Druggist. James married Fanny Shaw when he was 52 and she was 50, neither had been married before. He died in 1949 aged 76.

Till next time then……