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Actor Jane Horrocks was born on 18 January 1964 in Rawtenstall, Lancashire and is 60 years old. She is best known for playing Bubble Grin and her cousin Katy in Absolutely Fabulous<\/em> and for her performance in the film Little Voice<\/em>, for which she received Best Actress Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. She also voiced Babs in the films Chicken Run<\/em> and Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget<\/em>.<\/p> \u201cI\u2019d like to find out why the women<\/a> in our family are so obsessive,\u201d Jane says at the start of her episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/a><\/em>, first broadcast in 2006. \u201cI\u2019m the same \u2013 control freak, ball breaker, anal retentive, pain in the arse, that sort of thing.\u201d<\/p> It\u2019s a search that centres largely on her great grandmother, Sarah Cunliffe. In order to learn more about her, Jane heads for her own childhood home, Rawtenstall in Lancashire, to stay with her parents, Barbara and John. Today, it\u2019s a quiet spot, but in the 1870s it was a busy town dominated by the cotton-weaving industry. It was also a town where Methodist influence, and the temperance movement, were strong.<\/p> The extended Cunliffe family, recalls Jane\u2019s aunt, Molly, lived on Whitehead Street, named for the owners of the town\u2019s two mills. Sarah, says Molly, was \u201clittle, forceful, kind\u201d. She had only one child, Doris, because she married late. From the age of 12, suggest family stories, Sarah had to look after her two brothers because her mother had died.<\/p> But can these family stories necessarily be relied upon? As Jane begins her research into Sarah\u2019s life, it\u2019s clear some of the tales have at the very least been romanticised, embellished. At Longholme Methodist Church, Jane learns that Sarah was 29 when her father died \u2013 and 31 when her mother passed away. Census records<\/a> throw up further surprises. Sarah didn\u2019t just have two siblings, she was one of eight children.<\/p> These included one boy, Thomas, who died aged just three years old, in 1864. He was among many children who perished in the so-called \u2018cotton famine\u2019, which affected the north-west when cotton imports \u2013 and thus work in the mills \u2013 dried up because of the American Civil War. Despite the real hardship it caused, cotton mill workers<\/a> in the area supported Abraham Lincoln\u2019s stand against slavery, something that makes Manchester\u2019s statue of the president seem particularly evocative.<\/p> For now at least, Jane has finished tracing the Cunliffe side of her family. What about the Horrocks clan? Is Jane related to John and Samuel Horrocks, aka the \u201cCotton Kings\u201d, Preston mill owners who made their fortunes in the late 18th century<\/a>? A meeting with the Reverend Joseph Gilbert, who spent two decades researching the Horrocks family tree, reveals a mutual ancestor in Adam Horrocks (1665-1725).<\/p> But while John and Samuel became rich from cotton, Jane\u2019s own paternal grandfather and great grandfather toiled as bleachers. Thanks to a combination of dangerous chemicals and poor ventilation, this was one of the worst jobs in the industry.<\/p> It\u2019s time to go on the trail of Sarah again. An answer to the inconsistencies in Sarah\u2019s story may lie in her marriage, to John Taylor. Seven years her junior, he was the son of Rawtenstall\u2019s postmaster<\/a> and thus a member of a prominent local family. It appears that Sarah, who worked as a weaver, was perhaps embarrassed about her background.<\/p>