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Did building societies exist in the 1870/80s? - I thought they were a more recent creation

brits3 - see my reply on the lancashire board

z - thanks for the 1891 M O find. I had wondered whether Margaret had had a breakdown following a couple of horrendous years and had contacted Wittingham to ask. They are in the process of putting the index on-line but searched for me and did not find her. I might have asked a too specific question as I was trying to find her round 1876 when her husband remarried. I might try again using the census record as a base if only to rule  this out.

Margaret Oldfield was my great great grandmother. I have details of her marriage and children if you are interested.  I am currently trying to find what was going on in the mid 1870s also when and where she died. As far as I can tell she and John separated some time 1874/5 and he went on to marry bigamously twice. After his second marriage, he left Wigan and moved to Lymm where he appears on the 1901 census - Margaret reappears on the 1901 census in Wigan living with Edwin. This leads me to think she was living under a false name - at least for the census enumerators - from 1876 to 1901 in Wigan. In 1901, she is living at the address where Edwin's mother died in 1898 - implies she was involved with Esther at that time. Interestingly, Esther is buried in a private not public grave - I wonder who paid for that? Do you have the death certificate and who registered the death?

Assuming Margaret was using a false name, I found a Margaret Bennett, widow, aged 55, needlewoman, born in Leigh (all fits with 1901 entry) living less than 100 yards away from Esther and Edwin in 1891 - could this be Margaret Oldfield?

Another link between the families is that in 1881, Esther was working as a servant for a pawnbroker three doors away from The Shamrock pub where  John was landlord with his second 'wife' (John's brother was Charles Oldfield who founded Oldfield's brewery).

I haven't researched Esther's family in detail but she seems to come from a large family - why wasn't Edwin taken in by them? Do you know whether any were still alive/in the area? Again this implies a strong link between her and the Oldfields. She would have been pregnant in 1884. Peter Oldfield married in Barnsley in 1885 but I don't know when he left the militia or where he was in the early 1880's. John James married for the second time in Wigan in 1882 (coincidentally ? to a girl working for a pawnbroker)and was living in Wallgate. Charles married in Warrington in 1880 and went to live there. It is possible Peter, John James or even John (his third wife was 30 years his junior) was the father - or that Margaret was just  being a good samaritan and prevented Edwin ending up in the workhouse.

Hope this helps - if you have any of the information mentioned above, please let me know. If you want more information, also let me know