My third great grandparents were William Whittaker, a hatter, and his wife,
Elizabeth, a Welsh woman, likely from Denbighshire. I am seeking to discover
the birthplace of their son, George, my second great grandfather, in
Denbighshire. He was born 17 March 1822. Shortly after William and Elizabeth
removed to Romiley, Stockport, Cheshire. George was baptized by Thomas
Bennett at the Congregational Church, Hatherlow, Township of Bredbury,
Stockport, County of Chester, on 26 May 1822. The family continued to be
members of this congregation, as several other children were baptized there.
Rev. Bennett wrote the name of George Whittaker's birthplace in the church
record as best he understood it, but so far, I have been unable to decipher
what he meant. I have placed the image from the church record on my web site
http://home.comcast.net/~ttonyb1/GW-BP-01.htm, in case you would like to
take a guess at the name.
The second word is Denbighshire. The village is the challenge. The first
letter is a bit tricky. It could be "LL" but there does not appear to be any
place with "LL" that is similar to the rest of the word; that is according
to someone at the archives in Denbigh. Also, the minister was meticulous in
capitalizing the first word of all the other place names, so it seems he
would have done it in this case as well. I believe the first letter is a
"U", an "M" or a "W", or maybe even a "C". It
could be, among many other
possibilities, _ovan, _oran, _avan. You may see something else in this
lettering. He wrote so clearly elsewhere, I believe that he may have
struggled with how to write something that he was hearing and was not sure
how to spell. Sometimes saying the word is productive in trying to determine
what was intended.
Please email (ttbarbosa(a)comcast.com) me with your guess or suggestions for
further ways to determine the birthplace and likely village of origin for
Elizabeth. I would be most grateful.
Tali Barbosa
Hayward, California, USA