Hello Frances,

Thanks for responding so quickly.

I live in the Alsace and cannot easily get to the Isle of Man. At present there is only so much I can do via the Internet and my day job is a bit too demanding to spend the quality time this probably needs, I think I could benefit from some local support for some (for me) tricky questions. One of my grandfathers came from the Isle and I have some "brick walls" in tracing back, though I have managed to find out quite a fair amount in support of answering the open questions.

I can provide a more detailed statement but basically I have 5 areas to track down:-

1) The parents of my greatgrandmother Sarah Jane Cowell ( b1879 in Douglas) were Jane Crellin and William Cowell - I have no idea when and where they were born and died. I do have some partial information of their family including some census information and BMDs.

2) The parents of my greatgrandfather James Henry Moore (b 1878 in Douglas) were Henry Moore and Frances Margaret Maxwell (who married in 1878 in Maughold) - I don't know when and where Henry died and I don't know when Frances Margaret Maxwell was born. So these are the 2 parts to this line of enquiry. She was a Roman Catholic and the records look to be patchy. According to the census she was born in Castletown. Her father was Patrick Maxwell an Irishman. I think that Henry was born in 1854 to James Moore and Ann Crellin (who married in 1845 in Maughold) - but I really need to have a strong test of the veracity of this information - some of the pieces don't seem to fit properly. Henry died sometime between the date of the census of 1881, where he is recorded and the census of 1891, when his wife Margaret is noted as a Widow. According to my mother he was found dead underneath a bridge near to his home - an open verdict was given at the inquest - his fob watch was missing when he was found. There is a record of the death of a Henry Moore aged 34 Buried at Bradden 15 Aug 1888 on www.lawsons.com. However, no registration of his death was found by the IOM Registrar in any of the IOM Districts around this date.

3) If research can prove who Henry Moore's parents were, then I would like to trace his parents. (Possibly they were James Moore and Ann Crellin who married in Maughold in 1845)

4) I have a gggGrandfather Edward Waterson who was born in the Isle sometime around 1800. He was a cordwainer and migrated to Liverpool where he married Margaret Jane Elizabeth Cowley in 1827. He died in Liverpool in 1867. Where and when was he born?

5) Where in Ireland did my gggGranfather Patrick "Paddy" Maxwell come from and when was he born? This may not be a question which can be solved from the Isle of Man but there may be something in the early RC records or documents. Both his family and that of his wife, Cecelia Collins, seemed to be very strongly linked to the establishment of the early Roman Catholic community in the Isle around the late 1700 and early 1800s.

I was thinking that these are potentially time consuming topics to research and so was thinking about paid research to help push my family story along.

Glad for any advice on how best to proceed.

regards
John