The Catterall Connection

Tracing our Great Harwood Roots

When my sister and I became interested in researching our family tree, we discovered that over the years our parents had compiled a number of folders of family history. We decided to transfer it all into a computer database so, with a trial subscription to Ancestry; we began to build our family tree. When we finished we realised the line we knew least about was that of our own name: Catterall. When it came to the Catterall branch of the family, all we had to start with was a photo of our great-grandfather and his marriage and death certificates. The family knew him as George Holden Catterall. We knew George had emigrated from England to Australia in the 19 th century and that our grandparents had visited English relatives in Great Harwood in 1955. All that had survived from this trip were two photographs and some names in a small, black address book. The first photograph was taken in front of what looked like a church and was captioned “Rhoda – English relative”. A look in the GENUKI church database produced a picture of St Bartholomew's church in Great Harwood that looked very similar. We sent an email to St. Bartholomew's Parish office with the photo attached and, to our delight, a reply from the parish administrator confirmed that the photo was indeed taken outside St. Barts. The second photo, captioned “English relatives, 1955”, was of our grandparents and a group of people taken in what appeared to be a cemetery. The names in our grandmother's address book were:

Jim and Rhoda Hodgson
Leah and George Grimshaw
Bill and Hilda (no surname recorded)
Fred and Annie Hodgson
Tom and Doris Heys

Our research indicates the English relatives were grandchildren of George's sister, Alice Catterall, and her husband, William Hodgson:

James “Jim” Hodgson (born 1905) and his wife Rhoda Burton
Leah Hodgson (James' older sister, born 1895) and her husband, George Grimshaw
William (Bill) Hodgson (born 1900 and cousin to James and Leah) and his wife Mary Hilda Whittam
Fred Hodgson (William's younger brother, born 1904) and his wife Ann Woodruff
Doris Heys (William's younger sister, born 1902) and her husband, we think, was John T Heys (called Tom)

Identification of these people is very important to us because we feel it provides the confirmatory link between the family we had been researching and the relatives our grandparents visited in 1955. However we still don't know “who is who” in the second photograph, so if you know these people, or can confirm the location, we'd be delighted to hear from you. Another of George's sisters, Mary Ann, married William's brother Thomas Hodgson so we suspect that we might be related to many of the Great Harwood's current day Hodgsons!

Christine Cranmer (nee Catterall) and Eric Catterall