Hello! My name is Ella and I live in the state of Pennsylvania in the USA. The names that I research in the Lancashire area are COLEMAN and EAVES mainly and other names connected to those. At the moment, I'm hoping that anyone out there can tell me if I can find records online that might show whether or not my great grandfather James COLEMAN was in the North Lancashire Reformatory for Boys, Bleasdale, near Garstang, Lancashire. Other boys that might have been there around the same time were James Ewer and Peter Wills. According to family lore my great grandfather and a few other boys were taken from an orphanage to work as laborers. I did find him in Barnacre With Bonds living with the aforementioned boys and they were living with Richard and Mary HOWARTH in the 1901 census. There he would have met a HOWARTH relative named Fanny HARLING, daughter of Annie EAVES and step daughter of John HARLING, whom he married in 1906. She was my great grandmother. If anyone has any information to share I would certainly love to hear from you! Thank you in advance

Hi, Ella, Welcome to this list. For some information and photos of this establishment, have a look at http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/BleasdaleRfy/ This site suggests that there are some records in Lancashire Archives in Preston (not just round the corner for you, I realise). When this home was established, the consensus was that for children in trouble it was best that they were removed from their surroundings so that they were not encouraged to re-offend by the company they kept. Hope this helps Jim Lancaster (Bury, Lancs.) -----Original Message----- From: Ella Coleman-Artz via Sent: Sunday, November 22, 2015 5:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [LAN] North Lancashire Reformatory for Boys, Bleasdale,near Garstang, Lancashire