Looking for information about Rochdale family

Sharon Crompton is looking for information about her family from Rochdale – can you help?

Sharon is looking for information about both her parents, Hubert Arthur Crompton, and Sylvia Theresa Fitton. Both her parents were previously married before they met each other.

Together, they lived at Seven Acres Lane in Norden, with a cherry tree on the front lawn before moving to Rhyl in 1970.

Sharon said: “I'm trying to find out about mine and my sister Vicky’s roots/family.

“There was a neighbour at Seven Acres Lane that my mum and elder sisters became close with called Gloria Blomley. Her husband was called Alan and my sisters used to call Gloria ‘auntie’.”

Sharon's mum Sylvia Fitton was born on 4 December 1938 in Rochdale to Florence and Joseph Fitton. Her mum Florence (nee Sewell) sadly died of TB when Sylvia was still a baby.

Sylvia was adopted by the Pinder family, which Sharon thinks might be linked to her grandfathers family, the Fittons.

“I think there is a family link between Fitton and Pinder; possibly my real grandmother and Grandma Pinder were cousins or something,” she said.

Sylvia became a cleaner in the airforce when she met her first husband, Ron. They married and lived together in South Carolina before Sylvia flew back to Rochdale when they split up. She was pregnant with their second daughter, Mary, at the time.

“Sometime after that, she must have married my dad, but I think they might have been second cousins. It’s all confusing really,” Sharon said.

 

 

 

Sharon’s father – Hubert Arthur Crompton, who went by his middle name – was born to a Catholic family in Rochdale on 9 April 1928. His parents were Eunice Clegg and Albert Crompton, and there may be a family connection to Ireland.

Arthur was previously married to another lady called Jean, but Sharon doesn’t know if they had children together. She has two half-sisters – Dawn and Mary – from her mother’s first marriage to an American man, Ron Woodcock, who was in the airforce.

“Dad's first wife Jean’s surname was possibly Harris,” she said.

Sharon does not know if Arthur had siblings, but thinks he was brought up on or near Drake Street.

She said: “Dad told me his father, my grandad, went out for a bottle of milk and never came home. “Later in life, apparently he would go see his dad in an old person’s home in Kinmel Bay in North Wales, so a connection must have been made again at some point.”

Sharon thinks her dad served in the army at some point in his life: “He served in the army as a 'cleaner'. In hindsight, he could have been a cleaner as in cleaning the barracks, but I’m sure that my mum said that he went to 'clean' up our dead soldiers from the battlefield in the Second World War.

“I remember him telling stories of the drill sergeant to 'get your bloody hair cut boy! It’s almost in your eyes!' and he also told Vicky [Sharon’s sister] that he was 9 stone when he went in and 12 stone when he came out.

“This makes me think that he served rather than being a domestic cleaner, but everything is so jumbled up that I really can’t be certain of anything.”

She added: “I’ve shared some old photos in the hope of jogging someone’s memory. It would mean a lot if I can find out anything about my real grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins or even any half-brothers or sisters.”

If you have any information which may help Sharon, please contact the Newsdesk: news@rochdaleonline.co.uk