-------Hagues of Rhode Island----: Hague research in Cheshire and Lancashire counties, England

I've recently returned from a couple days looking around Dukinfield, Cheshire Co., England and Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lancashire Co. the location of many Hague families in years past, before coming to Rhode Island, USA. The River Tame is all that separates the two towns.
The Birth-Marriage-Death records, after July 1837 should be available for these towns at the Tameside Register Office is located in the Dukinfield Town Hall on King St., in Dukinfield, Cheshire Co. This is a governmental building where you fill out a form and they check their microfilm (or maybe original record books, I forgot to ask). I paid 10 pounds for each record Carol was able to find and transcribed for me into a certificate. The metropolitan borough of "Tameside" encompasses the towns of Ashton-under-Lyne, Audenshaw, Denton, Droylsden, Dukinfield, Hyde, Mossley and Stalybridge. So the term "Tameside" covers parts of Cheshire and Lancashire counties. Well, come to think of it... it covers both sides along the Tames River!

Tameside Register Office, in the Town Hall of Dukinfield, Cheshire, England

The Tameside Local Studies and Archives Centre, is located across the river in the Central Library on Old Street in Ashton-under-Lyne. This is the center for doing genealogy and history research for the area. With just an hour to spend there, and the librarians' help, I was able to find an old Dukinfield street map. I think their microfilm collection must be wonderful. They have free access to ancestry.com on their many public computers. So we used the 1841 Census with the map to try to figure out where "New Road" would have been in Dukinfield. I think it became Crescent Road.

Tameside Local Studies & Archives Centre at Central Library in Ashton-Under-Lyne, Lancashire county

Librarians looking for the old Dukinfield maps at Central Library in Ashton-Under-Lyne.

Old Dukinfield - year unknown that we found at the Library

They also have books and booklets available for purchase. I bought a great one called "A History of Dukinfield - No Mean City" by Milan Pavasovic for 3.5 pounds. There were others to choose from. Of course they have tons of books, as it is a library.

I walked around the two churches in Ashton-under-Lyne where some Hague baptisms, banns, marriages and burials took place. When looking for dates before 1837 you'd have to look at Parish Records (ancestry.com or FamilySearch.org, or FindMyPast.co.uk), rather than the government register office. There is St. Michael's Church on St Michael's Square in Ashton-u-Lyne (actually called St Michael & All Angels), reportedly built in 12th century, and St. Peter's Church also in Ashton, built in 1821.

St Peter's Church - Ashton. Gravestones are largely gone.

St Michael's Church - Ashton-under-Lyne by Mike Berrell

The church where my James Hagues had his marriages solemnized, was Mottram-in-Longendale about six miles east from Dukinfield and Ashton-Under-Lyne. I don't really know the church requirements through the years, as to where one needed to go to get their ordinances done. But my James Hague was married twice (1830 and 1844) at Mottram Parish Church. Evidently they lived in Dukinfield and it was in Mottram Parish, so they had to go there, instead just across the river into Ashton Parish. To get an idea of Mottram, I went there with my cousin, John, to see it for ourselves.

Surprisingly the Mottram Parish Church is actually called "St Michael & All Angels" just like the one in Ashton, and dates back to the late 15th century. So now there are two St Michael & All Angels Parish churches, but in different counties, and built centuaries apart. Anyway, I'm confused with all this. The Mottram church is high on a hill, more rural, and looks like economic times are hard there to keep it up. There are gravestones, but I'm sure the majority are gone, or underground now.

St Michael and All Angels - the Parish Church at Mottram-in-Longendale, Cheshire, England

Finally I spent some time back in Dukinfield at what is left of the old Moravian Burial Ground. There are graves there from 1751 to 1973. The church itself was next to the burial ground, but moved to a new site in on Yew Street, Dukinfield in 1973. The deteriorating old church was sold. I found the church grounds to have houses built there now. The burial ground is on Moravian Close just off of Old Road. If I have his parents correct, my James Hague was baptised there in 1806. These parents baptised their children there from 1805 through 1813 and by 1816 they were apparently out of the Moravian Church and baptising the rest of their children at St. Michael's in Ashton. (After establishing Dukinfield, the Moravians established a very large church, in 1785, with workshops in Droyslen on the west side of Ashton-under-Lyne.) These Moravian baptisms are online.