MONICA O'HARA-KEETON c/o Robert Hale Ltd, Clerkenwell House, Clerkenwell Green, London, EC1R 0HT

8:17am Friday 14th March 2008

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Like pretty well everyone else in the country, I'm deeply into family research, and one half of my family has roots in Bolton.

I've been reading Leslie Gent's wonderful book Bolton Past and enjoyed it enormously. My congratulations to him, it's wonderful, and provides deep insights into a part of the country I don't know at all (I'm an exiled Scouser, living in Kent).

Rummaging through history I've been trying to find the elusive grandfather but he continues to elude me, and as an investigative journalist myself, I just know there must have been something about him published somewhere.

Can anyone please help me find information on Edward J Duffy (b. Ireland 1868), Oodles or brothers and sisters, but when very young came to live in Bolton where, on the 1891 Census, his address is given as Forge Street.

He later moved to Brownlow Road, then became a tailor with premises in Lee Lane (and another in Chorley).

However, in 1913, he was declared bankrupt, and about the same time he was (I believe) convicted of arson and served his time in prison.

I have no details of what happened to him after that other than that he died in Farnworth on March 11, 1938.

His wife Catherine, a qualified schoolteacher, worked hard to pay off his debts, kept herself and her four children together.

I have no idea where Edward J served his sentence or for how long.

I understand that he was known locally as 'Waistcoat' Duffy, and one of my relatives recalls seeing a brief news item somewhere about him (described only as Mr D) doing beautiful stitching on his mail bags while 'inside'.

Can you help me please?

monicakeeton@btinternet.com