RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Derbyshire => Topic started by: s4rah on Saturday 29 June 13 21:11 BST (UK)
-
Hi all
My first post - be gentle :)
I've been looking for a while now for my great-grandparents' marriage. They both emigrated from England to Canada before 1925, and my grandmother was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in December 1925. Her birth cert states that her parents were married in Long Eaton, Derbyshire in 1918.
Problem is, I can't find any evidence of that whatsoever, in Long Eaton or anywhere else in England (or Canada). Have thought about it from all angles and one thing I'd like to eliminate is that there is some notorious problem with records from that area/period... Does anybody know if that's the case, or anything else that could help shed some light on this, please?
My great-grandmother was Alice Thompson, b 1890 in Pendleton, Lancs & great-grandfather was William James Walker, b 1882 in Costock, Notts. (He may have been illegitimate - his mother's maiden name was James).
Many thanks!
Sarah
-
Hi and welcome to Rootschat
If they married in 1918 and your grandmother was only born 7yrs later - I would have expected there to be other children in between.
Did your grandmother have older siblings?
-
Hi Carole
Thanks for taking the time to read my post.
My grandmother was the oldest of three. I've always thought 7 years quite a large gap myself, but I suppose it could happen (though her brother and sister followed on pretty quickly after her). I think her father may have been in the Army and I wonder if that might be the explanation.
-
Hi again
Quite "elderly" first parents
Alice would be 35 when your grandmother was born and William would have been 43. I suppose Alice could have had miscarriages/stillbirths before your grandmothers birth
Certainly no marriage showing in any county in England/Wales
There is an entry on the 1911 index for a William James b 1883 Nottingham shown as "Military" and living in London
-
Thanks Carole, I will take a look at that census. I'll look for earlier births too I think, just in case. The more I think about it, the stranger it seems that they would wait so long, but we really know very little about William & Alice. My grandmother wasn't brought up by them - aged 4 she was sent back to England to live with an aunt, and she never saw her parents again, they and her brother & sister remained in Canada for the rest of their lives. So all in all I think they were probably quite unusual parents.
-
Hi Sarah
A big welcome from me too
I don't know if you have the following information
William Edward born 6.8.1882 bapt 17.9.1882 to Mary Ann James, spinster at Costock, Notts
Mary Ann James married Albert Walker 2.11. 1885 at St. Pauls Hyson Green, Notts
Hope this helps
-
Hi!
Thank you very much, I had the marriage, but not the baptism - that could help a lot, I didn't know his middle name was Edward, gives me something else to search for! ;D
-
Incoming Passenger Lists:
SS Montrose (Canadian Pacific) arriving Liverpool from Quebec, 11th May 1926
Walker, Alice Housewife age 36 Intended address: 9 Wilton Place, Pendelton, Manchester
Walker, Margaret Child 4 months
-
Thankyou, I had seen that one before. They stayed about seven months then, and then my grandmother came back to England to live in June 1930 (with a chaperone). So at least she wasn't coming to live with total strangers, although of course she wouldn't have remembered the 1926 visit at all.
-
???
There are some trees on Ancestry for this couple.
They have a marriage certificate attached:
16th May 1918 of Gilbert Garner to Margaret Thompson
Witness: Alice Thompson
So any marriage would have taken place after 16th May?
-
That's probably my tree :)
Yes, we're definitely talking after 16th May 1918. That marriage cert for Alice's sister (actually the person my grandmother ended up living with after 1930) was a shock to me when I got it - prior to that we had thought Alice was already living in Canada by then. Everyone in the family thought William & Alice had met in Canada, but perhaps not.
As you can imagine, my grandmother didn't really like to talk about her parents much. She hardly remembered them and rather felt they had abandoned her. Hence why we don't know too much about them.
-
If it's not a rude question - can I ask why you think the marriage took place in 1918?
And why you think it was in Long Eaton?
Just trying to narrow the possibilities!
Of course, they may not have actually married? :o
-
Well that's the only conclusion I have drawn so far! He was born outside wedlock himself, so maybe he didn't put too much value on marriage.
My information on the year & place of marriage comes from my grandmother's Canadian birth cert, it's nice and detailed. But I doubt the registrar was inclined to check the truth of what he was told.
The one thing I can't work out is, if William & Alice were going to make up a pretend marriage, why did they choose Long Eaton, a place neither of them had any other connection with?
It's a mystery ???
-
Hello Sarah.... :)
Welcome to Rootschat from me too.
In the course of doing my own tree I look at all possible scenarios even if it is only to rule that event out, and as you have already found out some things do come as a surprise.
So, not wanting to throw any spanners in the works etc this might be worth a mention.... from Derbyshire marriage index, there was this marriage that took place at Long Eaton.
Long Eaton St Lawrence - 1913
William Edward Walker & Lizzie Pidcock
~ ~ ~
FreeBMD =
Marriages Sep 1913
Pidcock Lizzie /Walker Shardlow 7b 1163
Walker William E /Pidcock Shardlow 7b 1163
~ ~ ~
Kind Regards
Sheila.
-
Intended address: 9 Wilton Place, Pendelton, Manchester
I think it should be 8 Milton Place which was her parents address - William Thompson b 1858 Salford and Margaret b 1861 Salford
-
Hi
There is a marriage for
Alice Thompson and Herbert Jones in 1920 St Thomas Pendleton -the church where Margaret married, that you might want to check out.
Heather
-
Thank you all for your input, I really appreciate it and it is lovely to see how friendly everyone is here :D
-
That Walker/Pidcock marriage produced 2 children
Norman E b 1914 died 1954
Arthur T b 1916 died 1917
-
When my grandfather emigrated to Canada from Long Eaton leaving a wife and 6 small children behind he is on the ship's passenger list as single. So it seems emigration was an easy way of starting a new life with a new identity. Ancestry.com has passenger lists so worth checking there. It seems to me that they were probably not married.