THESE pictures have been sent to Bolton from Michigan, USA - but some are of Bolton in the past.

They have been lent to me by Mrs Mary Foley, of Chorley Old Road, who tells me that her mother had two sisters, Minnie and Alice, and one brother, Jim. The family name was Evans, and the two sisters were married and called Haslam, although there was no connection between the husbands apart from marriage. They all emigrated to Canada in 1920.

"They later went from Canada to Michigan after taking exams for American entry; they did it this way because they did not want to go to Ellis Island (the American immigration centre)." she writes.

Now, Bert Haslam, the son of Alice, has sent the pictures to Mrs Foley. They have obviously been kept through the generations and decades.

One, is of Deane Road, Bolton, date unknown but obviously at the beginning of the last century. Another was taken in 1917 at the Kippax Mill, Cannon Street, Bolton (later Vantona), and Minnie Haslam (nee Evans) can be seen third woman from the right - on the picture, you can see an arrow pointing to her.

The other two pictures show Minnie and her husband Walter, in the 1930s, at Jim's farm in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada (I thought you might like to see the car), and Sgt. Major Jim Evans, obviously before he went to Canada, on the lead horse, according to the details on the back, as the "3rd East Lancs, entering camp".