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From FamilyLives.org.uk:
Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as a ‘common law marriage’. In England and Wales only people who are married, whether of the same sex or not, or those in civil partnerships can rely on the laws about dividing up finances when they divorce or dissolve their marriage.

The assumption by many unmarried couples in a long standing relationship that they have acquired rights similar to those of married couples is wrong. This common misconception needs to be addressed particularly as for many years official statistics show numbers of marriages in decline as more people choose to cohabit (living together without being married).

Many people also believe that by having a child together they acquire legal rights, whether married, in a civil partnership, or not. This is also not true. Although there is scope to apply to court for financial provision when there are children, such orders are made for the benefit of the child and only couples who are married or in a civil partnership acquire legal rights and responsibilities in relation to each other.

I'm more asking if it's likely that they might have been presenting as married, her going by the husband's surname, etc. for whatever reason, even if they never did it legally, for it to have appeared on both the census return and the marriage record.

I have a little mystery that has me puzzled that I hope someone can give some other suggestions as to what might be going on.

Ann Jane Roberts was born in Bootle in 1875 to John and Ann Jane (née Megson) Roberts. In 1881 the family were all in Bootle, including Ann Jane's younger sister Jessie, but in 1891 a 16yo Ann Jane was working as a servant for Sarah Broadgate in Brigg, Lincolnshire, possibly having come over from Bootle with Sarah Broadgate's niece Sarah Duff.

In 1901 she was a servant at Meerbank, a large house in Toxteth Park that's no longer there, where she's listed as married and going by Ann Jane Stacey. Five years later Ann Jane Stacey, now a widow, married George Eden in Bootle, where her father is given as John Roberts, a carter, and one of the witnesses was her younger sister Jessie.

What I haven't found anywhere is a record of Ann Jane marrying a man whose surname was Stacey between 1891 and 1906. The most obvious possibility is of her not having married anyone, but also it's very possible that I just haven't been looking in the right places. There's nothing in the BMD or other marriage records in the Liverpool area that I can see, and the only possible candidates I can see who died between 1901 and 1906 were both above 70, which seems unlikely given Ann Jane would likely have been in her early to mid-20s at the time of the marriage. If there was a Mr Stacey could it be a common law marriage even though they weren't cohabiting?

Moving to Somerset.....

 Charlotte Sandell bap Walcot St Swithins. 8th Jan 1815 daughter of John and Sarah of Avon Street . Father a Mason.


   Tazzie

Nice one!

People invented names or used other family names in records.
The two women are together as mother and daughter in 1871 and 1881.
Maybe Sarah was registered under a different name from a relationship or, since we can’t find a birth, she may have been taken in by Charlotte, as you say.

I've done a bit more digging and the residents of 46a Circus Street in 1861 were the Dignam family, originally of Dublin, whose daughter Mary was then 17. Two years later, Mary would marry William Christopher Eden, with both of their addresses given as Circus Street.