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Thanks Graham. The archivist in Carlisle couldn't find anything.

My Gr-Gr-Aunt, Ellen Wilkinson MORTON, born Sneinton, Notts, 1843 though her census age doesn't match, appears on the 1881 Census as "Assistant Matron of Penitentiary" at St Mary's, Caldewgate, Cumberland. In 1891 she was Head of Institution there.

My current understanding is that it was a church institution with a Board managed by the Bishop intended to train and educate "fallen women."

Could anyone point me towards any institutional records that might have more information about how she got there (I can't identify her on the 1871 census) and how she left (I can't identify her in 1901 though I can in 1911 and 1921).

Thanks in advance

Apologies for veering slightly off-topic, but following my Notts forebears back I eventually come to Edward and Ann Pacy in Crowle, Lincolnshire. I have three children baptised there 1701 - 1706, one of whom dies in infancy, but cannot find Edward and Ann's marriage which I suspect will have been local to the Isle of Axholme.

Should any Pacy and variant researchers encounter this family I would be grateful if they could let me know. Happy to chat by email etc. to avoid hijacking this thread.

Thanks

Ian

My ancestor Sarah Ann Tomkins married William Ebbs in Redbourn, Herts in October 1840. Her father is named as William Tomkins. On the marriage cert, William is described as a leather dresser. Later censuses all give her place of birth as Bermondsey, Surrey.

After research over quite a long time, I think there's a decent chance that she is Sarah Tomkins, born 6 Oct 1822 and baptised at St John Horselydown, Bermondsey 23 Nov. 1822, f. William (a tanner), m. Ann., living in Fair Street. I suspect Susan Tomkins (later Biggs), bapt. St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, 12 Sept. 1819, when William and Ann were in Assembly Place, was her sister. As always, later dates on censuses don't align and this may be wrong.

However, I'm now stuck as there are several candidates for William and Ann and I don't have enough information to take things further, either to reinforce my identification of Sarah or to identify her parents William and Ann.

I've looked everywhere I can think of online (I'm in Edinburgh, not London) so I'm looking now for any hints, tips or chance encounters that anyone may have.

Thanks in advance. 

There was a George Fawkes baptised 9 Jun 1822 Hickling with parents John & Ann.

I have an instance where a chap remarried and first marriage named a father but the second one didn't so there can be other explanations as you say. 

I would try and trace this George just in case and yours did have a son John.

Yes, there are one or two potentials, but pinning him down is the problem. I have no idea, for example, what surname he might have been baptised under - my experience is that it is generally the mother's name unless the clergy are being particularly pointed about the reputed father, and I don't know the mothers name for sure.

I say I don't know 'for sure' because Ancestry throws up a DNA match for me with descendants of a woman who was married to someone else at the time and continued to be married to them for some time afterwards. That could also have other interpretations, but it adds uncertainty into the mix. I don't know, for example, if he was actually baptised.

Although unlikely, I'm exploring every avenue I can in case, for example, clergy have added a marginal note anywhere.