User:Castanea1985

Finding my Roots

The main reason for starting my family tree was to find my paternal grandfathers roots.

John Nolan was born in Manchester in October 1906 and was left by his mother on a doorstep in Rochdale. The story goes that he was the son of an Irish singer (we presumed this was where the Nolan came from?) and an Army Captain / Lieutenant. The lady that took him in, Rachel Shore (was Howarth, nee Holt) died when he was 7, and the story goes that he went to live with her son and wife, Samuel and Gertie Howarth, but money was tight, so he then went to live with Samuel's sister, Sarah Ellen and her husband, Arthur Henry Swain, as they couldn't have any children of their own. Sarah Ellen and Arthur 'adopted' my granfather giving him our surname of Swain. Sadly my grandfather died in 1959 before I was born, so I never met him.

I have been interested in this since I was in my teens and started my quest to find something about his birth parents about 30 years ago. Over this time all I could gather was that his birth was never registered, and the only thing with his birth date was a Statutory Declaration made to the Education board in 1918, presumably to prove his age, when leaving school!

It wasn't until 2008 that my real breakthrough came, when I found living relatives of Rachel, Samuel and Gertie. We have become firm friends and are both convinced there is a family link somewhere, we just need to find it!

The latest piece of information, the 1911 census, confuses matters even further, by naming my grandfather, John Hopkins! So now I'm looking for a John Nolan or Hopkins or possibly linked to Howarth, Holt or even Shore! Where do I start!

Meanwhile, following my other 3 three grandparents lines has been much more fruitful, with some lines dating back to the 1600 and early 1700's.