Nancy was a Cotton Weaver at the age of 16 in 1881.
She married James BLACKBURN in 1889. They had six children, including twins James and Richard, before her sister Harriet married Richard BLACKBURN. They then had two further children, John and Fred, who appears with them in the 1901 census, and Emily who was born in April/May 1901.
Tragedy struck in April 1901 when typhoid ripped through the family. Some of the children - probably the eldest Jane, Elizabeth, Harriet Firth and Robert - were taken away by friends and survived. The first to die was 3 year old John, who was buried on 19 April. James, 4, was buried on 24 April, and on that day Nancy gave birth to her daughter Emily. James' twin brother was buried on 9 May and Nancy's husband, James, who had been hospitalized, was buried on 10 May. Newborn Emily was buried on 22 May. Nancy and her son Fred also survived
On 31 Mar 1901, they had all appeared in the 1901 census (with the exception of Emily who had not yet been born). No contemporary news reports have been found, but one possible explanation is a house fire where the eldest children escaped and James died in an attempt to rescue the youngest children. Fred's survival might have been due to him still sleeping with his parents. They were living at 14 Double Street, Blackburn at the time.
