10:06am Tuesday 10th August 2010
By Jon Livesey
A PENDLE woman’s quest to trace her family tree has led her to the discovery of her elusive great-grandmother’s unmarked grave.
Inspired by BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? series, Emma Harrison, of Barnoldswick, decided to research her family history.
Using a range of tools she unearthed the deeds to her great-grandmother, Margaret Alice Buckle’s unmarked grave, in Heaton Cemetery, Bolton, where she had lain for almost 70 years without any visitors.
Now with the help of the cemetery, the 33-year-old mum-of-one is making sure Margaret’s grave is marked so the family can visit.
Emma said she had no idea when she began the quest, that it would uncover a story of scandal, marriages and mystery.
She discovered that Margaret was first married in Leeds in 1899 to a man called George Marshall, who was killed in 1903.
Two years later she married Allen Nuttall, but by August 1905, Margaret was granted a rare court separa-tion with an allowance of 10 shillings per week because Allen and his daughter had been ill-treating her. Just one month later Allen was sent to prison.
Margaret was pregnant and left to fend for herself in the workhouse at Fishpool.
Emma said: “It must have been a terrible ordeal for Margaret, because separations for women were very hard to get in those days.”
For many women that would have been the end, but Margaret was lucky enough to leave the workhouse, and although her son Daniel went to live with his father, she met Emma’s great grand-father, Samuel, in 1907.
Although they never married they lived together and had two children, Jack and Alice.
Samuel served in the First World War, and was awarded a trio of medals in 1921, but died in Yorkshire in 1927.
Emma said: “I’m determined to try and find out as much as I can.
"I’m up until 4am sometimes following leads, and my little girl Charlotte is fascinated by it.
“We’re hoping we will be able to track Samuel’s medals – she says she would love to be able to wear them on Remembrance Day to pay tribute to her great-great-grandfather.”
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