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My middle name is Hellawell (Harold Hellawell Bower) as is my great grandfather John Hellawell Shaw b1843 in Huddersfield. He probably got his name from his mother's side Mary Baxter as her mother appeared to be Elizabeth Hellawell b1795 married to Joseph Baxter. I suspect Elizabeth's father was James Hellawell but I'm not sure - I would love to fill in more of that part of my tree as it is such a significant name to me. Any help would be appreciated

Harold.

I assume you have done a full tree to include these people?

When was the first instance of the Hellawell name being included as a middle name?

The chances are Joseph Baxter & Elizabeth Hellawell used this firstly for one of their own children? Possibly the first born son?

Have you found their marriage and all of the subsequent children?

It could just be that a family member further down liked the name and thought they'd include it as a memory of the person.

My own Grandfather carries the middle name of McHendry when it was actually his Step Grandfathers name, his own mother wanted to remember her step father and used the chance when she had a son.

Sometimes there is just no rhyme or reason to this!


Tracey x

Just a note,

There are 47 people with the middle name of Hellawell on the BMD from 1837 to 1909, they are all mainly Huddersfield/Halifax way.

Are you also from that area?


T x

Hello, no I live in Welwyn Garden City but my father was from the Huddersfield / Linthwaite / Lockwood area as was all his ancestors whether they be Bowers, Hansons, Finchs, Shaws or Baxters. I know very little about Elizabeth's family but more on the Baxters. But Joseph and Elizabeth did not name any of their children Hellawell. It may be a family tradition because my Dad was Jack Finch Bower - his middle name from the Finch branch

Some families did this to honour lost Grandparents.

I know my own Gfather gained his name around the time his mother own Step father had died, (there was a few years between) so altho we can 'make a guess' she'd name him as such because of this death we cannot be absolutely certain.

Sometimes it's about inheritance, and heritage.

I would have said there was more of a traditional element to this if there was a child born in each generation carrying the name.

It does sound more likely they were honouring a family member and honoured yourself with this!

Tracey x

Thanks Tracy - the 47 names you identified - where did you get these from? I'm still feeling my way with this Ancestry game so need all the help I can get particularly the descendents of James Hellawell - at the moment I've only got Elizabeth and I'm out of the Census range,

Incidentally I have seen different spellings including Helliwell and Hellewell

Best Regards Harry Bower

www.freebmd.org.uk

The above site will give you a very good BMD range, i believe the earlier days are completed now (thats not to say ALL names are there!)

When you do a search only enter the forename of *Hellawell (including the star) this will give you all the people with Hellawell in their name.

The 47 i found are for various Surnames and not just yours.

If you select the option at the top of all types, this will give you all birth deaths and marriages. For the marriages you will need to click the number to the right of the marriage to find the spouse.

I hope all that makes sense

Tarcey x

Brill, thanks

No problem

Glad to be of help!


Tracey x

For those involved in this please note, though I haven't been able to unravel further, I did come across something interesting from a GRU user in another part of my tree on my grandfather's side. His mother was Eliza Hanson and her sister Emma married into the Lumbs who married into Bullas and Joseph Bullas b1894 lived in 3 Hellawells Yard/ Building, Huddersfield until 1915. I was quite excited by this until I remembered the name Hellawell (as a middle name) appeared on my grandmother and not my grandfather's side. But maybe there is a connection, perhaps that is how they met

Tracey wasn't quite correct. Searching for *Hellawell will only find those whose second name is Hellawell, and not those whose first or third name is Hellawell. (Actually, if she didn't tick the "exact" box, it would be those whose 2nd name begin with Hellawell, so would also catch Hellawellworthy etc - useful feature if you're looking for Ann, but don't know if it might be Anne, Anna or Annie too). To find any non-first middle name beginning with Hellawell, you need to search for **Hellawell, and to cover variant spellings of Hellewell, Helliwell, etc then search for **Hell?well. You will miss the single Hellwell listed though. **Hell is not a good idea - there's a surprising number of people whose middle name begins with Hell incl 997 Hellen's.

.

Sorry mgnv and Tracey I have tried and got in a terrible muddle. I am ashamed to say I am absolutely useless when it comes to computer programmes. Would you mind laying it out step by step - I know this is pathetic but that's what you are dealing with

Best Regards Harry

Hello Harold
If as you suspect that James Hellawell might be the name of your ancestor, I'm not promising anything but there is a James Hellewell married to a Mary Sykes on the 4th Sep 1794 at Almondbury All Hallows. Know the spelling is different but it does fit in with the birth of Elizabeth, and Mary Baxter might have been named after Mary Sykes. I know its ifs and ands.-JLe

Another afterthought is that Sykes is a very Colne Valley name and your ancestors came from Linthwaite which is in the Colne Valley.

Mgnv,

I was only ever looking for the name Hellawell as a middle name anyhow...so how did i get that wrong?

The query wasn't about first or third names....but second names!


Tracey x

You could be right Janet but kind of hard to confirm. Certainly there was a lot of mixing between Hellawell (or Hellewell/ Baxter/ Sykes. From other people's trees I have James Hellewell (b1713) marrying Elizabeth Baxter, sister of Samuel Baxter gt grandfather of Joseph Baxter who married Elizabeth Hellawell.

And unbelievably James Baxter (1609) married a Mary Sykes. Oh, and just so we don't get complacent Martha Hellwell b1729, dad James Helliwell, married into the Lindleys (Reuben) who eventually linked up with the Bowers on the other side of my family.

So it is not too suprising I have been lumbered with this silly name

Tracey, what you said was:
When you do a search only enter the forename of *Hellawell (including the star) this will give you all the people with Hellawell in their name.

That would find Sarah Hellawell Smith, but not Sarah Ann Hellawell Smith.

Harry - to implement Tracy's initial search, go to FreeBMD's search screen:
http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Select the type "All Types" (the alternatives are B, M or D)
For First name(s), enter *Hellawell and leave everything else blank, then click on Find.

I actually got 83 hits, 48 of which were births.

Depending on the time of day, FreeBMD might find more complex searches too lengthy. In that case, you can shorten them by changing the type, or limiting the date range.

As a footnote, FreeBMD have transcribed almost all the 942 registers thru 1915. There are 25 that are 96-99% complete, 3 that are 90-92% complete (D1845q3, D1859q1, D1863q2), and 1 that's 82% done (M1887q2).

Thanks mgnv it worked - don't know what I was doing wrong the first time.

I'll have to think how best to make use of this list. Some names spring up fro my tree Sutcliffe, Hill, Radcliffe, Sykes - I'll have to see if I can make a connection in the censuses . Of course my great grandfather is John Hellawell Shaw is there but the others?? - well that is the big question

Hello Harold
Whilst it may be hard to confirm the marriage of your 'James Hellawell' what I can confirm is that if both parties lived in the same area they would be married at All Hallows Almondbury. Remember that at this time Almondbury was the town and Huddersfield hadn't been established in the way we know it today. In the Marriages of Almondbury from 1785-1796 there were only two men called Hellewell married. A James Hellewell and a William Hellewell. If any couple lived in Crosland Moor, Linthwaite, Lockwood, they all came under the parish of Almondbury. There was nowhere else for them to get married. -JLe

Thanks Janet do we know if James Hellewell and Mary Sykes had any children if not an Elizabeth then any others