Dear Listers,
This thread has been intriguing to me because I have been researching a
Jackson family that lived in Holt. We believe that they were Catholic.
Apparently, there was no Catholic Church in Holt. I have been wondering
where Catholics living in Holt might have attended Mass. Was there a
traveling priest or did the families travel to Wrexham on Sunday?
James Jackson was born abt 1806 near Farndon and married an Eliza from
Holt before 1835. They had several children in Holt and the couple was
still living there in 1881. James Jackson's son, John, born in 1843,
married an Irish woman, Catherine Connaughton, about 1861. John and
Catherine later moved through Chester and on to Salford, Lancashire.
Catherine died in 1878 and John Jackson remarried (again taking an
Irish woman as his bride). Interestingly, Patrick J. Connaughton was
the best man for that second marriage, which took place in a Catholic
Church in Salford.
In the 1881 Wales Census I found an Irish family in Wrexham Regis with
the Connaughton surname. Michael Connaughton is enumerated as head of
the family. Michael's mother was also in the family group. From the
dates and places of birth for Michael's children, he and his family
came to Wrexham somewhere between 1861 and 1866. I am figuring that
Michael and Patrick J. Connaughton were brother's of Catherine.
I'd love to hear from anyone who might have the Connaughton or Jackson
families in their line.
Jackie Reiss