Hi Don, I'm afraid I can't help you directly with your lost Thomas LANGFORD but you might strike lucky with some manorial records for Holllingworth, since the Thomas there was a husbandman. As far as I'm aware, this term simply meant a 'small farmer', not as substantial in acreage and worth as a yeoman, and didn't necessarily imply a long residence in an area - indeed, I think husbandmen could be quite mobile, moving onto better farms and opportunities when they arose. A husbandman might easily have been a copyholder and therefore might figure in manorial records if they exist for Hollingworth. Locating manorial records is a detective job in its own right and unfortunately, Cheshire, like Derbyshire, is not yet included in the digitised Manorial Documents Register at the National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/mdr/default.htm. However, Derbyshire RO's manorial documents project gets underway this year so maybe the same is true for Cheshire. Best thing would be to ask the MDR what they have on file for Hollingworth. The contact address I have is: asd@nationalarchives.gov.uk, and it's also worth asking Cheshire Archives for any guide they have to the county's manor records. The good thing about manor court rolls and papers, where they exist, is that they can often document a family line over many generations. It's always possible the LANGFORDs held lands in Hollingworth, or acquired some by inheritance or marriage. Have you been able to scrutinise all the available Wills for the family? Failing manor records, there may be family and estate records for Hollingworth, including things like rentals for the local bigwig's estate, which might document your chap's arrival or start of a lease or similar. Worth checking the archive's catalogue. It's no great surprise if one member of a family chose a different occupation, especially if there were plentiful sons to join the main family business. I have come across this kind of pattern on numerous occasions. Hope this helps Regards, Celia Renshaw in Chesterfield UK On 12 March 2013 01:16, Don Sutherland <faldocs@bigpond.com> wrote: > Charani wrote> Does anyone have any brickwall families whose surnames > begin > with B? I can't believe none of you have brickwalls :)) > > > Oh Charani, I'm sure most of us do, perhaps we're all sitting back > patiently > for our letter to come up. I live a frustratingly long way away and am such > an impatient old sod, can I slip in under A for Ashbourne - pretty please? > > My brick wall is Thomas Langford who was baptised 26 June 1768 at Saint > Oswald, Ashbourne. His parents were William Langford and Sarah Peach and > his > grandfather was John Langford who I believe was the founder of a Langford > family dynasty of builders who were renowned builders over four > generations. > Some of their buildings still stand around Ashbourne to this day. My > brickwall is that I desperately need to find out what happened to this > Thomas Langford. I can't find any evidence of a marriage, of a death, or of > anything to suggest that he remained in the area. I suspect that he could > have been the same Thomas Langford that moved to Hollingworth in Cheshire > where he worked as a husbandman and later married Mary Sidebottom at > Mottram-in-Longdendale 1798. However my understanding of that occupation > was > that it was generally used to describe a tenant farmer with a permanent > lease of as much as 30 or 40 acres of land and inferred that the farmer had > been in the district for many years, perhaps even many generations; > although > I suspect that it could also be used to describe a simple farm hand. > > Either way it seems to be a long shot to claim that the two Thomas > Langfords > were the same person. If I could but find some evidence that Thomas of > Ashbourne stayed in that area it would at least enable me to discount him > as > being the one who went to Cheshire. I would have thought that there would > have been ample work within the family for him and little reason to move > away from what seems to have been a very successful family business at > Ashbourne. > > Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. > > Don Sutherland, > Melbourne, Australia > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > DERBYSGEN-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message >