As with any genealogical study, the starting point has been parish records of christenings, marriages and (where readily accessible) burials. We have had frequent recourse to the LDS FamilySearch web site to collect basic information from the IGI, following this up with examination of microfilms at the Lancashire Record Office in Preston, the Liverpool Record Office and the Society of Genealogists in London. Civil registration records of births, marriages and deaths post 1837 have been equally fundamental to this study. Countless volumes of indexes have been scanned in the Family Records Centre in London and more recently we have benefitted from the data held in the 1837Online and Ancestry web sites. The FreeBMD web site has also been much frequented, as have the similar LancashireBMD and CheshireBMD sites. We have purchased quite a few certified copies of BMD certificates from the GRO but, given the extortionate cost, much regret that we have not been able to afford all those we would have liked to peruse in order to prove theories or supplement our information. We live in hope of a more equitable deal for family historians on Scottish lines. Data from censuses between 1841 and 1901 has been crucial and has required continual scanning of data disks and of the Ancestry web site (which, despite numerous transcription errors, has been invaluable).
Much use has been made of trade directories, especially for Liverpool, and of election poll books. Thanks are due to the British Library and Guildhall Library in London, in particular, for making extensive holdings readily available; also to Martin Slater for his poll book work, which alerted us to the value of this source. Leicester University’s Historical Directories web site has also been of considerable value and deserves to be continued indefinitely and expanded. Similarly, the Old Bailey Proceedings Online Project web site has revealed one gem that would otherwise never have been found.
There are doubtless numerous newspaper articles and personal entries that would shed light on our subjects but, in general, the lack of indexing makes life difficult for researchers. The major exception is the thoroughly admirable Times Digital Archive. Access through our local library has enabled us to find a considerable number of relevant items that we have then followed up in local newspapers. Scanning the Liverpool Mercury in the Liverpool Record Office has been productive, if time-consuming, and will repay future attention. The Illustrated London News is the source of several contemporary illustrations. (The successor company at www.ilnpictures.co.uk can advise on the supply and use of ILN illustrations.) Thanks are also due to the Francis Frith Collection for permission to use one particularly relevant photograph.
Various histories of Liverpool, especially those written in the 19th century, have yielded helpful snippets or background information. J A Picton’s Memorials of Liverpool (2nd ed 1875) has been a mine of information, while Thomas Kaye’s The Stranger in Liverpool (1823 ed) and W H Pyne and D Wylie’s Lancashire Illustrated (1829) have painted the scene quite admirably and supplied most of the illustrations for this study. Joseph Sharples' Liverpool (2004) in Pevsner Architectural Guides is a helpful aid in determining what buildings and streets have survived to the present day.
We hope that this piece of research will provoke and incite contributions and comments from Walmsley descendants and other family and local historians. Much more must be known than we have been able to document so far. In particular, we would love to see photographs of 19th century Walmsleys.
We have, however, received key pieces of information from two present-day Walmsley descendants, Frances Wilson and Hugo Leggatt, for which we are most grateful.