A BOLTON Evening News story linking the ancestors of the local name Greenhalgh to a 19th century hero in Brazil has had readers branching out to investigate his family tree.

Interest was sparked in a BEN article which revealed that HMS Brilliant, the British war ship featured in a recent BBC series, had been sold to the Brazilian Navy and renamed . . . Frigate Greenhalgh!

The name was in honour of a naval hero who hailed from Bolton or Bury and went on to become a hero in the Brazilian Navy - a fact confirmed by Capt Juan Carlos Aves, the current captain of the newly named ship.

However, although Capt Aves could trace the hero in question to a William Greenhalgh, he knew little more.

Since that time however, BEN reader Peter Greenhalgh, of Belmont Road, Astley Bridge, has enrolled help to uncover the likely origins of William Greenhalgh and his family. Brazilian records show that brothers William and Richard Greenhalgh, sons of Richard, a weaver, and Ann Greenhalgh, made the journey to Brazil soon after the Portuguese Royal Family left for the country during the Napoleonic War. Both brothers, who are recorded as being born in Bury, married Brazilian women. Richard was married in Niteroi, Brazil, to Carolota Augusta Vidal. The couple had six children - Ricardo, Guilherme, Margarida, Thomas Augusta, Joao Carlos and Carlota Augusta Greenhalgh.

William married Agostinha Eugenia De Souza Froes and they had two children - Eugenia Amelia and Joao Guilherme Greenhalgh.

And it was Joao Guilherme, born in 1845 in Rio de Janeiro, who went on to become a naval hero. He entered the Naval School in Brazil in 1862 and was always first in his class. In 1864 he became a midshipman. He made his name during the Brazil/Paraguay war, and died "gloriously defending the Brazilian flag" in the Riachuelo Naval Battle on June 11, 1865.

He is described in Brazilian records as becoming "a symbol of bravery and patriotism."

His origins, going further back, are thought to have been from a branch of the Greenhalgh family based in Bury.

William's father Richard is believed to have been the son of Richard Greenhalgh, of Tittleshaw, who was born in 1734, son of Thomas Greenhalgh, of Tottington.

Peter Greenhalgh, who passed the information on to the BEN, adds: "The name Greenhalgh comes from the name for a type of land - a spring moss.

"There is a Greenhalgh Moss in Bury - the town being the focal point for the name. I hope this is of help to all readers whose curiousity was aroused by the initial BEN article."

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