Welcome to The Briercliffe Society Forum

They were James Halstead and Mary Ann Ion from Briercliffe/Burnley who first emigrated to Canada in 1895 to homestead, only to then move to Australia in 1911 where they remained.

My family is made up of immigrants of one sort or another (obviously:D), but this was the first that I'd seen that emigrated twice.

I never met my grandparents and knew nothing about them, and didn't know any of this history until very recently, so tracing my family and finding that they had such strong roots in the one place (Briercliffe) is really moving.
I never knew where the name Halstead was from or what it meant - and now I do.

I am really appreciative of all the work that has gone into photographing the gravestones. I have already found a family gravestone here.

Welcome to the site.

There is a lot of Halstead material on the site, much of it is thanks to Suzycue.

Have a look at the gravestone transcriptions here on the forum, you may find more info of interest. Not all of the stones are standing today but the stones were transcribed many years ago so the details are available if the image isn't.

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Mel

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Thank you very much.

I actually stumbled onto the forum after finding a page of Halstead grave inscriptions here when googling. I'm still building my family tree and figuring out who everyone is - but I think I've seen a couple of great-great aunts and uncles.

Hi,

I have just discovered alianna68 posted here and have sent off an email. We have the same grt grandparents - James Halstead and Margaret Ann Ion.

alianna68 is impressed that the couple immigrated twice.

I have given their move a bit of thought over the years and assume that James left England for a chance at a better life. The family farm was too small to support all the Halsteads and James had no interest in working in the mills. He may have fancied himself as a bit of a gentlemen farmer . So James and new wife Margaret set off for Canada where they remained for a number of years.

Dairy farming in Canada has many challenges including the extreme cold. Cows don't stay outside at night like they do in Australia or do they now?

There's a family legend that goes like this: one evening in Canada, James is reading a magazine describing farming conditons in Australia and he reads about the temperate weather conditions and then announces that the family will move to australia. he has moved once, out of England, and in about 16 years moved another two times before moving to Australia. Moving across Canada from the east to the west over such a short period may have helped make James think a move to Australia would be easy peasy., a piece of cake, nothing to it.

I was reliably informed that James had no idea what to expect when he got to Australia so he included in his luggage the family cooking stove. I wonder whether he took it from England?

Hope this helps.

And now I’ve just found a real life second cousin.

Fabulous news. Bob's post hadn't been approved when you posted but great to see you have made contact! Enjoy

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Mel

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