Hi Peter, the Pretoria Disaster, on the list of miners killed are two Higsons:- J Higson living at 7 Venice street Daubhill leaving family of 3 children aged 11,13,15 and William Higson at the same address.. Rgds Jim Riding ======================================== Message Received: Aug 24 2006, 10:56 PM From: "Peter Wood" To: ENG-LAN-BOLTON-L@rootsweb.com Cc: Subject: RE: [ENG-LAN-BOLTON] HIGSON burials at Deane Thanks Valerie Can you tell me if the actual burial register for Deane covering 1910-11 is available for inspection? Our experience so far is that many of the Pretoria victims graves do not have stones, so no MIs, and some have MIs in cemeteries different from where they were buried. However, we have a newspaper report that one of the victims, James Worthington (born in Middle Hulton - Deane Parish) was buried in Deane churchyard, so it is likely that other Deane parishoners were buried there to. When I first asked you some while ago, we had a very long list which has been considerably shortened (found 22 at Heaton/Tongue), and now we are picking off the scattered strays (only this week I found one each in Preston, Wigan and Darwen). John Higson is one of those "here we go again" cases. In 1901 census there is a JH 34 at Blackrod Coal miner widower with son William 12. And there is JH 35 at Deane Coal miner widower with son William 13. Either of the John and Williams could have been the Pretoria victims. However, Annie Martin was a 'servant' in the Deane JH household, and Pretoria compensation records show that payment was made to Ann Higson "wife" whose children were all called Martin. I have a note that the Blackrod JH in 1891 was with wife Sarah and sons James 4 and Wm 1, so I guess the one you found at Junction Rd is the 'real' John Higson. For the Pretoria project I am trying to find out where everyone was born and when, and to whom they were related. That means a lot of census work, but we are progressing nicely and should have a very comprehensive data set on the Westhoughton site before next Dec 21st. Regards Peter Wood ==== ENG-LAN-BOLTON Mailing List ==== For Family/Local History covering Bolton, Horwich, Farnworth, Westhoughton and Turton. Please keep the messages coming. ============================== Census images 1901, 1891, 1881 and 1871, plus so much more. Ancestry.com's United Kingdom & Ireland Collection. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13968/rd.ashx