On the trail of history

BRIAN McEwen with his records and computer files on local births, deaths and mariages at his home in Delph.

A RETIRED teacher from Saddleworth is asking local residents just ‘who do you think you are?’

After painstakingly copying thousands of records from Oldham Local Studies and Archives to his computer by hand, Brian McEwen now wants people to come forward who may be interested in finding out more about their ancestors.

The ex head of Physics at Blue Coat School, in his own words, became ‘hooked’ on the history of the area when he began to trace his own family tree.

But he stumbled across a few surprises in the process.

Mr McEwen said, “My father told me that the McEwen clan came from the outer isles of Scotland, I even bought a plaque with the symbol on when I was a student.

“I found that it was a load of rubbish, my grandfather was born in Salford and my great-grandfather was actually listed as McKeon and was an Irish labourer.”

Mr McEwen, of Ainley Wood, Delph, began to transcribe birth, death and marriage records for various churches in Saddleworth after joining the Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society.

He has now built up extensive computer documents for the 1841 Saddleworth census and the following decades’ Friarmere census until 1901, on top of thousands of local church records.

The local ancestor hunter, who is also church warden at St Thomas’ in Delph, thinks that the success of the BBC show ‘Who do you think you are?’ is to thank for the increasing interest in the subject.

“They have used well-known personalities and people are intrigued as to why they are as they are.

“I wanted to know why I am like I am, it certainly gives you a sense of where you have come from.”

Mr McEwen admits that collating the information has been a great hobby for him “like doing a crossword”, however he assures people that he is not going to be prying in on their recent family history.

“I am proud of what I have done and I hope that this is a way of giving something back to the community in which I live.”

Contact Brian: brianmcewen@talktalk.net