Back we go to the 1830s and beyond; the dark but exciting days of no censuses, no civil registration and no guarantees of what, if anything, you might find. But the challenge of tracking down William Grindle or Grindley – the stone mason who is apparently my 3x great-granddad on account of his relationship, fling or whatever it was with my 3x great-grandmother Sarah Tonge – has got me all of a flutter.
So far, the earliest record I have is the 1841 Census of Little Hulton, Lancashire, which shows William Grindle, his oddly named wife Cosbi/Cazby/Gosbie, and their three eldest children Jane, Emma and Ann.
Jane is three, suggesting the Grindles perhaps married around 1837. But that’s two whole years after Sarah Tonge gave birth to my 2x great-granddad…
