Known ancestors from the birth certificate of a known and well-documented person, and testimony from living people.
Evidence for married life from GRO certificates. Marriage cert found by dual name search - gives ages and fathers to find and confirm births.
Need to look for them in 1911 census.
Further questions for family members such as about their children and when James and Alice died.
Might be records of Skelmersdale New Town corporation, and 20th-century sources such as business directories, phone books, electoral rolls, etc.
James's birth cert gives parents - both birth names. Marriage cert found by dual name search and date from births of James and William (est from census).
I’ve no other evidence yet to place either Richard or Eizabeth in Liverpool - their marriage there may represent a young-adult phase of life going to the big city to work and find a partner, or it may represent a hurried marriage away from their families with fictitious addresses. Or maybe a bit of both - even if they really did live and work as they said, neither witness shares a surname with bride or groom and their elder son was born not long after the marriage. Also Richard's occupation is labourer between two listings as a coal miner - could be fiction to fit in with lack of local coal mines, or could mean he was in Liverpool while temporarily out of his mining job.
Would be worth getting William's birth cert to shed light on the circumstances of their marriage and early married life.
Evidence for their married life is James's birth certificate and the 1891 census.
Should note results of searches for them in 1901, 1911 censuses.
Evidence for latest date for Richard's death marriage cert of his son James - which gives his occupation as collier, suggesting that this was what he did most of his life if not until he died. Failure so far to locate him in 1901 suggests a death before then fairly likely - quite young - perhaps industrial cause??
Look independently for Elizabeth Ann Rigby born Rainford about 1862 in censuses and death indexes - may show if she's a widow. If don't find her death ask family members whether she was alive in living memory. Also look for son James aged 15 in 1901, born Skelmersdale
Evidence of Thomas and Isabella's children is from censuses (how did I locate the children in the censuses? I guess name, age, father and location. May have to repeat the search in online indexes). The youngest child has a middle name which enabled finding of her birth, which gave Isabella's maiden name. With full names of both spouses searched FreeBMD for a marriage and got one hit.
Evidence on these two is their marriage certificate, censuses 1861-81, marriage certs for their son, and a pre-marriage birth of Isabella's daughter Fanny WRIGHT.
Thomas's given age is usually consistent with being born about 1829-30, but he gets three years younger at one point which could suggest up to 1833 - do an IGI search for his birth and note results. He was born Leyland contrary to errors in some census transcriptions.
Aim to find Thomas RIGBY in the 1851 census – aged about 21 or possibly a couple of years younger and born Leyland. Look for Thomas and/or Isabella in 1891, 1901, 1911 censuses. Look for deaths for them.
Have not yet found a birth for Richard RIGBY about 1859 Ormskirk. Here's the searching I have done:
His age is 1 in 1861 so I think we can take it that he was born between April 1859 and April 1860. All the censuses say Ormskirk, which is a reg district.
I searched on FreeBMD for Richard Rigby born Ormskirk MarQ 1859 to JunQ 1860.
Births Mar 1860:
RIGBY Richard Ormskirk 8b 547
RIGBY Richard Ormskirk 8b 545
Births Jun 1860:
RIGBY Richard Ormskirk 8b 528 - I have a wrong certificate, 6 April 1860, Richard, son of Richard Rigby fisherman of Hawdside (?) North Meols and Elizabeth Rigby formerly Kinrid (?)
I think I have also already ordered the earlier two - the parents there are John and Elizabeth in one case and Richard and Ellen in the other.
Could order Births Q3 1856 Elizabeth RIGBY Ormskirk 8b 511, to try to pin down the parents soon before Richard’s birth – if the details match the 1861 census then I think we’ve got the family at the relevant time even if his birth isn’t registered. Whatever the result, may provide clues to Richard's birth.
Have got a birth certificate for Fanny WRIGHT Q1 1853. There is a Margaret WRIGHT who looks a bit close to Fanny so I haven’t ordered her yet. There are two likely-looking Margaret RIGBYs who might be Thomas’ daughter by a first wife or something – both Births Q2 1854, Margaret RIGBY, Ormskirk 8b 555 and 557. Could do a checkpoint application on father’s name. If there does appear to be a first wife, could look for her death.
Find out more about the addresses, and about the brickworks at Ormskirk / coal mines at Skelmersdale that the men would have been working in.
Nothing on him yet beyond his son's marriage sertificate. Son's birth (see above) would help. Might be able to use it to look for a marriage.
If you are interested in this line I'll be very pleased indeed to hear from you. Email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com though obviously you edit the email address before you send. Remove everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my initial, surname and number before the @. Please do not delete the automatically-generated subject line, so that I know your email is not spam. You can add more to the subject if you like but if you delete what appears I may not read your mail.