I wonder if anyone can help with this query?My ancestor Thomas Jaques was born circa 1825 somewhere around Middleton. I had never been able to find Thomas or his father Abraham in either the 1841 or 1851 censuses. Eventually I did find a Thomas of the right age living with his grandfather on Boardman Lane Middleton in 1841.This made me wonder if Abraham Jaques may have died As it is not a usual name I took a chance on a death certificate for an Abraham Jaques who died in 1839 which told me that he had been a weaver from Thornham who died aged 39 of consumption. I have previously looked for Abraham in the Middleton Marriage Registers with no success and so I am now trying to spread my net wider.On Genuki I looked at the church database to see which churches would have been nearest to Thornham and would have been founded by 1839.I found the following : Dog Road/Cotton Street Royton (Particular Baptist) St. John,Royton(Wesleyan Methodist) St Paul's (C of E) Royton Rochdale Road East Congregational Heywood. The next nearest after this was St Leonards Middleton. Does anyone have any idea where I could find the registers for these churches? Are any of them available on databases or in ways that don't involve travelling to either Middleton or Manchester. Also has anyone any further ideas,at the moment while it could be that the right Abraham or Thomas it is by no means proven. Regards Sue

Hi Sue, Before the Thornham churches were built, the inhabitants used Middleton St Leonards. Have you tried Prestwich St Mary for a marriage of Abraham? Or even Oldham St Mary? The marriage registers have been indexed for most of the Middleton churches - copies available at Middleton Library and on my computer. A baptism and burial index is also underway, but a little patchy at present. (The burials would also have been at St Leonards earlier on). I have some Jacques notes on file, and will check these tomorrow. Doreen in Middleton. http://mysite.freeserve.com/localresearch2 --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.514 / Virus Database: 312 - Release Date: 28/08/2003

Hello again Sue, Have just found some baptism extracts from St Leonards Middleton for Jaques/Jacques. Unfortunately, they are later dates 1831-46 so they won`t help. Doreen in Middleton. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.514 / Virus Database: 312 - Release Date: 28/08/2003