The Collapse of the Tower of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas (1810)

As I was searching for members of Robert Hall's family I ran into some interesting information that tied into the life of their family.

Our Lady and Saint Nicholas 1824

On Sunday February 11, 1810 as they were preparing for the morning service, the tower of the church Our Lady and Saint Nicholas collapsed, killing 25 people.[1] St. Nicholas is where most of the children of Robert and Elizabeth had been christened, up to that point. Their next child, born after the collapse, was Robert. He was born in December of 1810, and christened in January 1811 at St. Peters.

I found this piece of history interesting because it explains why Robert and Elizabeth had the rest of their children christened at St. Peters, with the exception of Henry, who was christened at St. Nicholas in 1815.


[1] Church of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas, Liverpool, Wikipedia.com, accessed 8 March 2013.

Margaret Hall

I have mentioned before that I suspected that Margaret Hall was not the daughter of our Robert and Elizabeth Hall. She was born in 1827, which would have made Elizabeth about 48 years old. While it is possible that Elizabeth had a child at that age, it is not probable. I have also seen other children, who were born around the same time as Margaret, who were born to a Robert and Elizabeth Hall. I decided to look for evidence to finally rule Margaret out.

                                                             Ancestry.com 1841 England Census

In the 1841 England census I was able to locate Margaret living in Liverpool. She was 14 years old, which would have been correct, and she was living with her parents, Robert and Elizabeth. She was the oldest listed child and her younger siblings were the same as those I had suspected to be her siblings. Her parents were listed as both being 40 years old.[1] That means they were born around 1801, which was after our Robert and Elizabeth were married and had had their first child, Thomas.

My suspicions were correct.

To be more certain of my findings I looked at the other Margaret Hall's listed from Liverpool:

First, there was a Margaret Hall born in 1830. She was living with people I would assume were her parents, James and Martha, and with her siblings. Her family was listed with others: the Bleasdales, Radcliffs, and one Hurley.
The next Margaret Hall was born about 1826. She was living with Elizabeth Beverly (65), Agnes Beverly (30), and John Beverly (8). You could say that perhaps her parents had died by this time, since I have not been able to locate burial records for Robert nor Elizabeth. But none of the people listed have names of family members, and it would be natural to assume she would have lived with a sibling if her parents had died.
Third, there was a Margaret Hall born in 1831. She was living with her parents, Robert and Margaret, and her siblings.

Here is the updated list of Robert and Elizabeth Miller Hall's children.

Thomas Hall (born 1801)
William Hall (born 1804) Listed as the 2nd child.
Mary Ann Hall (born 1806)
Joseph Hall (born 1808)
Robert Hall (born 1810)
Mary Jane Hall (born 1813)
Henry Hall (born 1815)
Thomas Hall (born 1816)
Robert Hall (born 1818)

*Jane Hall (1803) has been on the list. I have still never found a record for her. After finding William, whose record stated he was the 2nd child, I assume Jane is not part of this family.

[1] 1841 England Census, Ancestry.com, accessed 28 February 2013.

An Exciting Discovery.

While searching the OPC (Online Parish Clerks) for Robert Hall I ran into a christening record for another child for Robert and Elizabeth! William Hall was born 17 June 1804 and baptized 8 July 1804 at St. James, Toxteth, Lancashire, England.[1] Toxteth is a part of Liverpool. They were living on Bridgewater Street at the time, which is where they were living when the next child, Mary Ann,was born. The father's occupation is listed as a "warehouse man". Interesting. After finding this information on the OPC I went to Ancestry.com and was able to find an image for the original record and the bishop's transcript. I was able to confirm from the original record that William was, indeed, a child of our Robert and Elizabeth because the record mentioned that his mother was "Elizabeth formerly Mille". I am sure the "r" was just left off. The record also states that Robert and Elizabeth were married at "Trinity", which was the church our couple was married in.

Original Baptism Record: William Hall. Ancestry.com

Bishop's Transcript: William Hall's Baptism. Ancestry.com

One of the most interesting parts of the record is that it says William was the 2nd child of Robert and Elizabeth. From all of the information I have seen Jane Hall was supposedly their 2nd child. I have never been able to find a record for her. I have seen a Jane Hall born to other parents at that time. Either William was their 2nd child, period, or Jane was their second child and had died at that point and so William was the 2nd child living. What do you think?

[1] Church of England, St. James. 6 July 1804 baptism of William Hall. Online Parish Clerks.  accessed 8 March 2013.

An update on my search for Robert Hall's burial year:
I blogged last week about my search for Robert's burial year. I was able to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake to search the records for the Holy Trinity in Liverpool Central. I did not have any success. I have since been searching the OPC more deeply and am paying attention to all Robert Halls. For all those that seem like possibilities I am using other resources, such as Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org, to discount them if I find more on their age or birth years. My next step is to search Findmypast to prove or disprove any others I have found.
I have read that Thomas Hall was 11 when his father died, and then he was apprenticed out. Thomas was born in September 1816. That would put the year around 1827-1828. I don't know where the person who wrote the account got their information. Did they have an actual source or are they assuming Thomas was 11 because they have seen Robert's burial year listed as 1828? I hope to find out.

Searching for Robert Hall's Burial Record. HELP!

This past Wednesday I had a research question presentation in one of my classes. I gave general information about what I knew about Robert Hall and his family and asked for advice on how to go about finding the identity of Robert's parents. I have been planning on searching for a will for Robert, but in order to be efficient with my research, I need to verify Robert's death/burial year. I have seen it listed as 1828 on many family websites, but I have never actually seen information for a source to an original record.

This is my call to all those who have information on this Robert Hall family from Liverpool. If you have any sources of information about Robert's death year, or any pertinent information on him or his family members, please let me know. I am looking for actual sources, not hearsay, family tradition or what you saw on the internet... unless, of course, it includes information to locate an actual record.

My next step is to go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake to look at grave records for the Holy Trinity church in the parish of Liverpool Central. As far as I can tell there are no burial records available online for the Holy Trinity in Liverpool. Hopefully the film # I have will help in my research.

Thank you!

Explanation of a Cordwainer

For this week's post I have added a short podcast to the right of my blog. It is a brief description of cordwainers and their origins. Feel free to listen if you are interested in learning more about the occupation!