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Just checked the witnesses on the 1916 marriage in Walthamstow, they are groom's father and groom's sister and husband, no relatives of Florence Ryan which may be significant. I wonder who gave her away if her dad was deceased?

One of the stories in my family was regarding the wife of my great'grandmother's brother, Florence Rose Ryan. She married James B Higgins in London in 1916. Her son told me that her grandmother worked as a nanny to the Russian Tsar's children. He said that she was well liked by the family and received a pension after she came back to England. He couldn't remember her name or any other details.

Recently I discovered a woman called Margueretta Eager from Ireland who was nanny to the children of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II. Could she be the relative?

I looked into Florence Ryan's family a few years ago but gave up as I hit a brick wall. She married James Bartholomew Higgins in 1916 when she was 25. I bought her marriage certificate and it shows that her father was called Frederick Ryan and was deceased (no ocupation shown). She was 25, so born in 1891. I couldn't trace an obvious Florence Ryan with a father called Frederick on the Census.

More recently, having found Florence Higgins on the 1921 census, and later voting registers I discovered her full birth name was Florence Rose Ryan. So armed with this extra info I looked at births and saw a Florence Rose Ryan born in Clerkenwell in 1891, the only one, so it had to be her. I bought a digital copy of the birth certificate which was missing part of the image but I discoverd he father was called William, proffesion piano maker, mother's name beginning with E (full name is one of the parts that is missing) living at 18 Busaco Street, Clerkenwell in London. Exct date of birth mising from the image.

Next I looked on the 1901 census hoping to find a piano maker called William Ryan with a daughter called Florence age 9/10. I did find a piano maker called William Ryan with a wife called Eliza but not in London and no daughter Florence or Rose.

Then as Florence was born in a cenus year I decided to look up the Busaco Street address on the 1891 census and found a group of people the, one of them called Elizabeth Ryan but age 20 and single. Could she be Florence's mother or sister? But where was William?

I was stuck again but then I rememberd my earlier research and found that I had looked up a baptism of a Florence Rose Ryan from 1894 in Holborn, I checked and the parents names were William and Elizabeth and he was a cabinet maker (close to a piano maker). And the address was 18 Busaco Street. So I thought I had found it and that she was baptised at age 3. However against the baptism was written the word Private. I checked and that meant that the child was probably very ill and was baprtised at home. This was possibly true as a child called Florence Ryan died the following year age 1 in the same parish, Holborn.

So I am puzzled. My reseach so far has shown that Florence's father has two difererent names, the address of her birth was also the same as a child of the same name born 3 years later who died the following year to parents of the same name. I cant trace her parents or siblings with any certainty, let alone find a connection to the myserious nanny who supposedly worked for the Tsar.

Any help/advice would be appreciated, not just the Tsar connection but with tracing Florence's ancestors.

I have a few questions about my ancestor George Lay's crime records which I'm hoping someone can help me with. He commited many crimes, sometimes giving a false name which complicates matters, and was jailed 8 times as far as I can see, the last time in 1925.

He seems to have commited his first serious crime in 1908 when he was accused and imprisoned with stealing lead and motor accessories from a workshop in North London with another man. There are also recognizences metioned which I undertand are previous crimes where he was let out on bail on the understanding that he stayed out of trouble, and as he has now commited further crime these re taken into consideration.
However a later crime that he was tried and sentenced for in 1910 is included on a later crime record as a recognizence. And various recognizences seem to be included over and over again. How can he be punished for the same crime twice or am I misreading the sitiation?

One crime record is for a trial from 20 December 1910 and there are recogniznces of three  previous crimes and says that the sentence was "to be computed from 20 December 1910". What does this mean?

On another crime record from 1919 he is tried on 21 October but it another record shows the sentence starting on 20 December. Was that normal practice to delay a sentence in prison?

Also he was sent to prison in 1919 for house breaking and once again pevious crimes were listed as recognizences from 1913 but two of these had supposedly happened when he was in prison for an earlier crime. I can't see how that is possible.

Also he joined the army during WWI but comitted a crime when he was on leave or AWOL in 1917 and seems to have been charged in a civil court and served time in civil prison even though he was in the army. Was this normal practice?

Yes that is my Robert V Lay (born Robert V Bloomfield 1888), we know he went to the reformatory ship in Birkenhead for 4 years but thought he had learned his lesson until I found two newspaper cuttings about him stealing from a public house in 1910, but the ref on his brother's record suggests he was involved in other crimes. He died in 1918.

Thanks for the info. Do you know where I can look up the CRO number quoted as Robert was my great grandfather.