It interests me that your Bamber family came from Lancashire and was Catholic. My gr-gr-gr-grandmother Elizabeth Bamber (married Thomas Tomlinson) was baptized at the Catholic church in Scorton, Garstang, Lancashire in 1781. She was the daughter of Thomas Bamber and Ann Drinkall. I believe the Bambers and Drinkalls came from Over Wyresdale, not too far from Lancaster. in the 1820s Elizabeth and two of her brothers and their families immigrated to the St. Clair County and Monroe County area of Illinois, where many of their descendants reside today. Does this match up with any other Bamber researchers out there?

Phil Tomlinson
Macon, Illinois