I just searched for the Mary Ellen Gaskell you mentioned and saw the baptism was 1876 (as you said) so clearly not the same family as she was born in the wrong century!

Please would you post these other possible entries from Upholland. Thanks.

there is a ellen Gaskell ,born april 1769 father joseph , ellen gaskell 1772 april father william ashurst , Mother Mary ? gaskell Abode pemberton . Mother from upholland child illegitimate

But her parents need to be Henry and Mary (see post #3), that's why I chose the Wigan entry. So the two you have found have the wrong parents and are probably too old (from the age at burial).

hi ,I also have just had a message from a walker ancestor in california, who has sent me a copy of a court Paper she has found , 25 th of July 1806 Lancashire order books records and petitions .Stating that Richard walker of haigh is reputed to be the father of Joseph male bastard child to Ann gaskell of billinge , and then a sum to be paid and then a weekly payment . she seems to think this is our Richard Walker and is also looking into the possibilitiy of Ann being the sister of Ellen Gaskell . It would be a reason they didn't stay in upholland and moved . Billinge isn't too far from upholland .

Oooh dear!

Do we know that ,the burial of ellen walker is for definite . I am trying to understand why they would have burials at wigan when they live in Haigh , Unless they had a plot there , as haigh i'd just over four miles away and it has its own church . Also could i ask could Richard walker be older perhaps in his thirties whe he got married ?

i have found two anns at the moment , father henry one born 1784 one born 1789 there are a couple more i will look at them tommorow .

If you have found some more, maybe you could post them here so we can take a look and see if any can be eliminated. We do know the hisband of that Ellen was called Richard.

Richard was most likely over 21 at the marriage, but other than that he could have been any age. Do you not like the look of the one on the census then? If you don't think that Richard is the one, then the Ellen burial probably isn't the one either, as that suggests her husband was still living.

Hi ,Yes I was always searching after 1770 for richard, But I found a Richard Thomas Walker baptised 21 july 1767 Born 27th dec 1766 father william and Mary Farmer . upholland and there are lots of walkers in upholland .Now that would make him around 30/31 , but Ellen could have been younger . so the burial could be right . that's my thoughts . And then we have got this latest scenario, where he could be the father of this Joseph Gaskell , mother ann gaskell . who is from that area , so i'm just looking at a bigger picture .