Hello Sharon, and welcome to the list! Do you have the later census information for this family? I see that George died shortly after the 1851 census and Sarah married William SIMPSON (and there's a visitor called TURNER in the 1861 household). The place name is Brightside Bierlow (there is also Ecclesall Bierlow in Sheffield). Bierlow is a word of Norse origin. Here is a useful quote I came across: from Discovering Parish Boundaries By Angus Winchester; Osprey Publishing, 2000 "... much of England possesses a much more scattered settlement pattern consisting of small hamlets and dispersed farmsteads. In these areas lordship or the existence of early local folk meetings were probably the forces which bound scattered groups of farms together into township communities. A hint of these early origins in the north of England comes in the term bierlow or byerlaw, a term which came to be almost synonymous with 'village community, township' and survived in place-names such as Brampton Bierlow, Brightside Bierlow and Eccleshall Bierlow in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Derived from the Scandinavian term byar-log, meaning ' the local law of the township', it hints that a village meeting, a sort of proto-manor court making regulations affecting the whole community, was the essential feature binding scattered farms into a township community." Hugh ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sharon Jameson" <sharon-j@bigpond.net.au> To: <eng-sheffield@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2009 9:16 AM Subject: [SHEFF] SWANN family in Handworth Hi I am new to the list and new to researching in England. My interest is in the SWANN family who (according to census information) comes from Handsworth. JOSEPH SWANN (1847 - 1930) married JANE BUTLER (1846 - ?) in Sheffield in 1872. JOSEPH SWANN's father is given as GEORGE SWANN (born c 1826). According to the 1851 census for Brightside Burlow (hopefully I have this placename right), Sheffield he was married to SARAH (possibly TURNER) and living with SARAH HUTCHISON a widower aged 58. I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has knowledge of this family or area. Regards Sharon (In Australia) ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to ENG-SHEFFIELD-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message