I found the following stray buried in the churchyard of St Peter, Bolton, Lancashire: Thomas BIRCH, of Lapley, Staffordshire, labourer, bur 1 May 1724. It might just be of use to someone. Pat, Stockport, UK

Hello is there any one out there with a connection or info to a James Fredrick Birch who was my g grandfather born in 1885 in St Georges Hospital London and Married a Widow Florence Dorothy Chapman around 1905 They lived at 3 Ross way London and had 3 children James, Dorothy, and Francis. He worked at Woolwich Arsenal and was some one high up in the Buffs. James father was Ernest Harold Birch who lived with George Underhill in 1881 in Chelsea I don’t know who his mother was yet but I’m working on it Thanks Kevin

Hi Looking for Martha Birch, b. 1810, who married William Kidd about 1830 in Addingham. Last known whereabouts was in 1841 census with her two daughters only, staying with her brother Thomas Birch in Barden, nr Skipton, West Riding YKS. It is possible she may have remarried. Monica

> To All Americans > > We have watched in disbelief the horrifying mass murder in you Country. > Words can't describe the devastation we feel in our hearts. > Just to let you know how we feel here in Nowra, NSW, Australia. > Just hearing on the radio, there has been bombings in Sydney this morning > of > Arabic > religious centre's ect. People are striking out here today. > The American Embassy has been flooded with flowers and messages from the > Australian people. > We send to you, President Bush and all the Americans people our deepest > feelings. And know this evil will be dealt with accordingly. > Our hearts ache in this day of gloom > Amanda Curran > Nowra, NSW, Australia

Hi everyone, I'm new to the list. I'm looking for anyone who may know of ELIZABETH BIRCH..who married a WILLIAM R CROXSON in the SURREY area . William R came from BERMONDSEY, and I THINK Elizabeth came from POPLAR (middlesex)..close to Bermondsey. In the 1881 census, William R CROXSON (57) was married to an MARY A REED( 51) and they had 2 young children. It seems ELIZABETH BIRCH may have passed away before 1881. He was 57, so I'm thinking that ELIZABETH BIRCH would have been his first wife and would have married him before 1852 when their first? child was born...ADELAIDE was born (in Rotherhithe). The second was my great grandfather ARTHUR CROXSON, born July 1861 in CLAPHAM. If anyone can help me link this lady to a family, I'd be most grateful. Kind Regards, Wendy in Australia

hi would love to hear from anyone with an interest in birch name from birmingham england early 1900s julie

Richard Byrch of Colemere, Shropshire, UK married Edward Dickin at Ellesmere, Shropshire, UK in 1762 One known child: Edward Birch bap 1747 born Ellsemere died 1802 Ellesmere, married in 1788 Ellesmere, Mary ? bap 1764 Ellesmere. Children: Mary bap 1789 Ellesmere married William Butler in 1816. Edward bap 1791 Ellesmere married in 1834 Mary Jones in Ellesmere -Children: Edward bap 1835 Cockshutt, Marianne bap 1839 Cockshutt, George bap 1842 Cockshutt George bap 1792 Ellesmere Sarah bap 1794 Ellesmere married in 1818 Ellesmere John Bickley. Maria bap1799 Ellesmere married 1823 Ellsemere William Foulkes. John bap 1802 Ellsemere died 1805 Ellesmere Best wishes Amanda amandacurran@bigpond.com

We are looking for information on Charles Birch and family. Here is the information we have and believe to be true: Charles Birch was born sometime around 1840 to 1850 in New York state. Charles married Margaret Tenneson on Dec 10 1866 in Henry County, OH. Margaret was born about 1852 in Indiana. They had the following children: i. Hattie Birch was born about 1868. ii. James E Birch was born on Sep 6 1870. He died on Sep 17 1927. He was buried in Riverside Cemetary, Maumee, OH. James married Martha Ellen Babel daughter of James Babel and Diana Forsythe on May 13 1887. Martha was born about 1867 in Paulding County, OH. iii. Jesse Andr Birch was born on Jul 22 1881. iv. Marian M Birch was born about 1886. Any information will be appreciated! Thanks...

I'm looking for information on William Elgin Birch. He was born around 1830 in the District of Columbia. He married Mary Jane Stevens(from Maryland) in San Francisco in 1858. He appears on the 1860 census in San Francisco along with his wife and son, also named William Elgin Birch. There is also an H. A. Stevens, 43, female and Geo. W. Stevens 10 years old in their household. William Elgin is listed as a crewmember of the Pacific Mail Ship "Golden Gate". I have found him on many crew lists for ships that traveled from San Francisco to Panama and back. In 1862 he was captain of a Schooner "Gov. Wallace" which sailed to Shanghai. He died there of Cholera. Although D.C. is listed as his place of birth on the 1860 census, I can't seem to find him on an earlier census in D.C. There is a William Birch listed on the 1850 D.C. Census who is about the right age, but resides with a J. T. Birch and his family, but the way he is listed indicates that he is an apprentice cabinet maker and may not be related at all to J.T. Birch. Any help would be appreciated. Jodie Birch

In the Will of John RACKHAM dated 1806 I have the following: " ...... One Hundred and twenty Pounds other part thereof I give and bequeath to my Niece Alice the Wife of Henry Burch of Tunstall in the said County Blacksmith ......" Henry BIRCH, Blacksmith of Tunstall, Suffolk (b.1760 Clopton) m.1785 Clopton Alice RACKHAM (b.1766 Cratfield, Suffolk) I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has any additional information on this BIRCH family. Regards, Peter Blades South Australia.

SOLVING SOME GENEALOGICAL PROBLEMS What do you know and what do you need to know? In what type of record can you find the information that will unlock your problem?. How can you get to that record? If that record is not available, what record can be substituted? GOOD RULES TO REMEMBER: 1. A man who receives by a will cannot be a witness to it. 2. A nun-cupative will can dispose only of personal property {not land 3. A married woman could not make a will without her husband's consent and even so, could dispose only of personal property unless there had been a pre-nuptial agreement. 4. Title to land could be conveyed either by inheritance or deed or marriage. 5. If a man sells land and there is no record in the Deed Book that he purchased that land, then he inherited it or his wife inherited the land and a record of that is in the probate files. Knowing this will help to discover the identity of the wives. 6. A man did not have to be 21 to buy land, but he did have to be 21 to sell it. He did not have to own property to vote, but he did have to be a free man. He had to be 21 to serve on a jury, but he did not have to own property or to be naturalized. 7. A woman was never a taxable or tithe. If her name appears on a tax list, it is because she is a widow; she has a male of taxable age in her household or a slave of taxable age. 8. Quakers used numerical dating and did not take oaths and were not married in a civil service. A Quaker's last will does not begin with: "In the name of God, Amen," and there are no marriage bonds for Quakers. 9. There are excellent indexed records for Moravians and Quakers; many records of both Lutheran and Reformed churches and ministers that have been translated. 10. All males and females enumerated in the census records prior to 1850 are not necessarily members of the immediate family; they are merely members of the household and may not even be related. 11. "Junior" did not necessarily mean "son of," but was a designation for a younger man of the same name in the same area. A man could be a "junior" at one period and "senior" at a later period. 12. "Infant" did not mean a babe in arms but someone under legal age. 13. An "orphan" was someone under 21 who had lost his or her father; the mother might well be living. 14. An illegitimate child almost invariably took the surname of the mother. 15. If a man died in Rowan County, NC and devised his land in Davidson County to his son, there will not be a record in Davidson County to show the transmittal of that property. 16. In intestacy, the Court appointed as administrator(s) the widow & relict [who may have already remarried and may have a different name] and/or sons(s) who are of legal age. If they relinquish, the largest creditor is appointed. 17. A posthumous child, even if not mentioned in the will, will share equally with the other children. 18. Not just anyone can file a caveat to a will - only a person who stands to inherit from the estate, and only then if he would receive more by the laws of intestate succession than from the provisions of the will. 19. If no executor is named in the will, the Court appoints an administrator "cum testamento annexo" to carry out the provisions of the will. 20. According to the laws of intestate succession, the widow receives 1/3rd of all property, and the remainder goes to the children. 21. The law of primogeniture was legally abolished in 1784 and had to do ONLY with the estate of an intestate. 22. Normally, the widows of intestates were allotted a year's provision. 23. Until 1868, a husband had a life estate in all real property owned by his wife at the time of their marriage; this is known as curtesy. 24. Dower rights pertained to the belonging of the husband, whether he owned it before the marriage or acquired it afterward. Husbands did have identical rights to property owned by their wives, but when referring to those rights they are called curtsy rather than dower. 25. Curtesy or Courtesy, Scotch Law. A life-rent given by law to the surviving husband, of all his wife's heritage of which she died in feft, if there was a child of the marriage born alive. The child born of the marriage must be the mother's heir. If she had a child by a former marriage, who is to succeed to her estate, the husband has no right to the curtsy while such child is alive; so that the curtesy is due to the husband rather as father to the heir than as husband to an heiress, comfortable to the Roman law, which gives to the father the use of what the child succeeds to by the mother. 26. If an estate was debt-ridden, the personal property was disposed of first. The widow's 1/3rd was protected and usually 1/3rd for the children against any claims for debt. 27. An "orphan" over the age of 14 could select his own guardian [as it is now]; if he were younger, the Court appointed the guardian. If an orphan were left little estate, he was often apprenticed by the Court to learn a trade. 28. Watch for a man disposing of more land than you can find him buying. Did land come to him by death? Did his wife inherit property that he is selling? 29. Taxable age for white men during the colonial period was 16; during the Revolutionary War it varied from county to county; after 1784, it was 21. 30. Be very careful about accepting any information on a death certificate other than the date of death, as the information was given under stress by someone who may not have a full knowledge of the facts. The same holds true for obituary notices. 31. Phonetic spelling can be tricky. The clerk wrote down what he HEARD, i.e., Anne Eliza or Annie Liza, Synderalugh or Cinderella. 32. Watch for occupations being Capitalized as identification following a name, without a coma. Very few people had three names. John Williams Carpenter in 1785 was probably John Williams, carpenter. John Henry Taylor may well have been John Henry, tailor. 33. Many times there are no commas separating a list of names of children in a will and you may have either ten daughters with single names or five daughters with double names or a mixture. 34. If a man left underage children, you should expect to find a guardian being appointed and the children being referred to as "orphans" although their mother may still be living and be appointed their guardian. If she has remarried, her new husband is often appointed guardian of the minor children. 35. Spelling can be very confusing, i.e., "hairs purchaced waggins at Estate sail." 36. When checking an index, say the surname and envision every possible spelling. a friend eventually identified her ancestor Lewis Redwine as having been Ludwig Rheitweil 37. Some names were shortened through usage. Mr. Reed Pickler had difficulty with his line until he realized the surname of the immigrant ancestor was Blankenpickler. 38. In examining a Bible record, see if the handwriting is all the same. If it is, all entries were probably made at the time of the latest entry; if entries were made at the time the event occurred, they are more apt to be accurate. 39. In NC, the marriage act of 1741 forbade "the abominable mixture" between white men and women and Indians, Negroes, Mustees and Mulattoes or any person of mixed blood. 40. Words denoting relationship, such as "in-law" and "step," often had different meanings from what they have today. "Nephew" sometimes meant grandson or grandchild, such as "to my nephew Rebecca Hayes." "Brother" could be also brother-in-law or brother in Christ or a minister. 41. Non-jurors or non-swearers were people who refused or failed to take the oath of allegiance, i.e., Loyalists or Tories. Many when faced with the possible confiscation of their property, embraced the Revolutionary cause, and some became super patriots. 42. Inventories and estate sales reveal much about the occupation and status of the deceased and often suggest other records that might be searched. 43. Analyze the naming patterns in the generations you have constructed as a possible clue for a given name of an earlier male or the maiden name of a wife. For example, the widow Hartwell Drake almost certainly had a mother whose maiden name was Hartwell. 44. Often a later child was given the same name as one who had died earlier. 45. If there is no marriage bond for a 2nd marriage, look for an age-gap between children to try to determine when the first wife died, 46. Livery and Seizen was a practice between the seller and buyer of a piece of land. They met on the property and in the presence of witnesses declare the contents on which livery is to be made. This was a ceremonial act by which the seller delivers (livery) a clod, or twig or some other piece of turf or branch from some plant growing on the property and this transfer is accompanied with words much like the following: "I deliver these to you in the name of seizen of all the lands and tenements contained in this deed." It was a formalized ritual probably called for by the purchaser who may have had something to gain by having several witnesses to the event. These matters concern a vocabulary no longer used, and made manifest that which is now reduced to words on paper.

Did someone post a query about a Birch-Niver marriage in NY? If so, please e-mail me. I might be able to help. Bob Decker

Hi Is anyone researching a Birch family from Ireland that settled in Pa? I have a Dr. David Birch that I think is my ggrandfather. There is also a Thomas and Joseph Birch that I think might be brothers. From the census came over early 1800's. If it is a remote possibility please contact me. Thanks, Carol

Hi Is there anyone that is researching a Birch family in Penn. 1800's to 1900's in Phil? I'm trying to find the family of Joseph C. Birch B. abt 1846 (census) and d. abt 1894- 1900. He was a reporter in Phil. Pa. Maybe there could be a connection. Thanks, Carol in Calif.

Hi I would like to talk to you about your family. My Birch family is from Phil. Pa in the late 1980's that I'm sure of. I have a Joesph Cooper Birch m. Mary Logan. I'm trying to find both of their families. Please write me back. Carol in Calif

Trying to find info. on my GGGrandfather Samuel Birch m. Louetta Weaver. My G Grandfather was Samuel Jr. 1862 - 1846 m. Mary Staller. They were from Cambria Co. Pa. They owned Birch Moving and Transfer Co. in Johnstown,Pa.. Any info. would be helpful. Ken Hite , Jr. York, Pa. HHite94965@aol.com

Hi everyone, just thought I would let you know that www.sierrahome.com is offering a free search for their War of  1812 database. There are 60 Birch's listed. Carol

Hi Peter > My ancestor Grace Birch married John Tricker in Stowmarket in Suffolk in > 1714. I don't know her antecedents. Does anyone out there know anything of > the Stowmarket Birches? Theres very little email traffic in this list. I had forgotten I was subscribed . Have BIRCHs from St Erth, Cornwall bye Marg Morters List Owner NSW Central Coast Mailing List Gosford, NSW Australia . > > ============================== > Search ALL of RootsWeb's mailing lists in real time. > RootsWeb's Personalized Mailing Lists: > http://pml.rootsweb.com/

Does anyone know anything about the ancestors of my g-grandfather, Allan or Allen D. BIRCH? He was born about 1860, place unknown. I can place him near Beloit, Kansas, as a young man. He married Clara VanScoyk there. As time went on, they moved to Topeka, KS, where he became a printer. His children were Opal (Birch) ENTRIKEN (b. May 10, 1884), Van Lloyd BIRCH (b. 1885), Lenore Velma (Birch) COMBS (b. Aug. 27, 1892; my grandmother), and Vreda (Birch) RIGBY (b. ca 1901). Any help? Lyn (Allen) Griffiths

I am looking for the marriage of my great, great grandfather, James Arthur Birch to Maria Anna Theresa [surname unknown]. I have searched through the GRO indexes, but found nothing, nor did they register their children. He was born in the Manchester area in 1825 and was quite a well-known figure in his day. I have found lots of information about, even a sketch of him. As well as being a J.P., he was a Town Councillor for St Ann's Ward, Manchester. He died in 1889 and is buried in Brooklands Cemetery, Sale, Cheshire. All I know about Maria is from the census returns - she was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, about 1833 and died in 1882, also buried in Brooklands Cemetery. Pat, Stockport, UK