My links with the Ratcliffe family are rather tenuous. A great-aunt, Martha ETHERINGTON, married James Henry RATCLIFFE, a widower of Bury in 1907. As I knew little about him I had made only a possible link to his family in the censuses. A note from a Mary Philips, who has closer ties to the family, made it clear that I had the right person. Mary also provided information about other lines of the family.

The parents of James Henry were William Ratcliffe and Abigail ECCLES who married at Bury New Road Independent Chapel in 1861. Abigail was born about 1838 in Edenfield and was buried in St Paul's, Bury in 1890. After William died she married James KNIGHT.

William and Abigail had 5 children:-

• James Henry 1862-1919 (m1 Mary WOLSTENHOLME; m2 Martha ETHERINGTON
• Walter 1863-1922
• Richard 1865
• Enoch 1869
• William 1873

Walter, Richard, and Enoch all married and had issue. Abigail also had 2 daughters by her second husband. James Henry Ratcliffe had 4 children by his first wife and 3 (James, Robert, Abigail) by his second:-

• Maria 1890
• William 1892-1938
• Henry 1897-1915 (m Elma HARRISON)
• Mary 1897-1898 bur. Walmersley Christ Church (as also JHR and wife Martha)
• James (m Evelyn)
• Robert (m Eliabeth)
• Abigail

In the 1881 census Abigail is at 21 Hornby Street (Bury) with her children including Margaret KNIGHT but although she is married her husband (James Knight at this stage) is not present. In 1891 census James Henry is in Walmersley Road with his first wife and young daughter, his brothers Enoch and William, and 2 stepsisters. His brother Walter is in Howarth Square. In 1901 JHR has moved a few houses along the road and is with his first wife and 3 children. His son Henry married an Elma HARRISON but he was later killed in the Great War in France in 1915. Elma later married a man called GREENWOOD and lived (I think) for a time in Peel Brow, Ramsbottom. She knew my mother and once mentioned that she was related distantly to my father. This would be through James Henry's second wife Martha who was my father's aunt.