Baptisms at St Cross Church, Clayton

I joined the Manchester rootsweb list yesterday & asked if there was a way of finding my great grandmother's baptism at St Cross Church in Clayton Lancashire. A lovely lady wrote back & gave me the web address of the local studies library in Manchester. Oh how I would love to spend a day there :O) Anyway, they will do look ups for you:

Please note that the staff time available to deal with written enquiries is severely limited. We can only undertake research if the original records are held here. We can only make a search for one specific piece of information that will take less than fifteen minutes to complete.
Examples of searches we can undertake are:
Baptism, marriage or burial on a precise date at a specific church
An entry in one record in a precise year at a specific hospital or school
An entry for one individual or address in one directory or electoral register
A specific report in one issue of one newspaper
One area on one map for a particular date or edition
Up to six subjects in the digitised prints collection, only one if non-digitised, such as outside Manchester

So that got me thinking. I know the dates of birth of Lily & her siblings from information given to me by my Uncle Ken. I went on familysearch.org and searched for any baptisms where the parents were George Horrocks & Sarah and this is what transpired:

Baptisms at Clayton, Lancashire
Jane Horrocks - 4 Aug 1867
Hannah Maria Horrocks - 18 Jul 1869
Mary Alice Horrocks - 7 Jan 1872
Emma Horrocks - 15 Mar 1874
Clara Horrocks - 3 Mar 1878
Lily Horrocks - 1 Oct 1884
And the biggest surprise of all, Ellen Horrocks - 18 May 1887

As far as I know, Lily's parents only had ten children, nothing has ever been mentioned about Ellen!! So lots of letters to write now & maybe a couple of certificates to buy? I think I will have to spend a couple of days going through the finances etc. to see what I can stretch to :O)

It is a bit weird though, all the baptisms are there for the female side of the family but nothing about Lily's brothers, George, Albert, James or William?

I must remember to write and ask about the 2 burials as well, Hannah Maria, Lily's sister & her father George Hunter Horrocks.

***Added***

I've found an entry in the June Qtr 1887 for the birth of an Ellen Horrocks, Ashton Under Lyne R/D. Unfortunately I've also found an entry of death in the Sept Qtr 1887 :O(

Searching on ancestry.com (thank you Chris) I've found the birth entry for Emma Horrocks in the March Qtr 1874. As she doesn't appear on any census records I searched for a death. An Emma Horrocks died aged 5 in the June Qtr 1879, Ashton R/D.

If both these children do belonged to my family it means that my 2x Great Grandparents, George Hunter Horrocks & Sarah Horrocks had 11 children and lost 4 of them in childhood. Goodness me they had a very hard life didn't they. I couldn't imagine losing one of my children let alone 4 of them and we're not talking centuries ago, all this happened just over 120 years ago!!