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Since the Suffolk parish registers are finally online (hurrah!) I've been having lots of fun going through my file, double checking all the dates I've added from various indexes over the years and saving the images.  All fairly straight forward so far.

I've just come to the marriage of my 7x great-grandparents John Palfrey and Susan Chapman and am suddenly drawing a very odd blank.

According to Boyd's Marriage Index (transcribed on FindMyPast) their marriage took place in Sapiston in 1715.

According to the Suffolk Family History society transcribed parish registers for Blackbourn Deanery, it took place in Sapiston on 2nd February 1715.  It states that John was a widower (consistent with his first wife dying in 1714).

However when I look at the parish registers for Sapiston, I can't find it anywhere.  Not just on the search index, but when manually viewing the pages.  There are only 28 pages in the book that covers 1684-1730 as it was a small parish, and I've viewed the entire thing twice in case it was entered as a note later, unless I'm really being quite blind this morning I cannot find it at all.  I have found that the entries for 1715 are in two separate places in the book, page 14 and page 20, but although there are Palfreys and Chapmans in the parish I can't find my pair anywhere.

I've searched a couple of years either side (although the window is quite narrow, John's first wife died in 1714 and his first daughter with Susan was baptised in 1716), I've double checked that the front of the book is definitely for Sapiston, I've re-checked the indexes above to confirm I had the right information, I've double checked there weren't two Sapistons in Suffolk!  And now I'm just very confused about why I can't find it.

Does anyone have any bright ideas about where I can look?  My only thought was it might have been recorded in Bishop's Transcripts and not in the original parish registers, but I'm not sure it would have been in Boyds and the Suffolk FHS indexes if that was the case.

Thank you in advance for any help

Thanks again for the replies!

Yes Henry was his brother - the one who emigrated to New Zealand. I’ve seen that website before and corresponded with the lady who ran it quite a few years ago. It seems the descendants of Henry’s New Zealand branch believed that Samuel died at sea - which is why I thought his death likely predated the emigration.

Haven’t had a chance to look at the tickets on FindMyPast yet but that’s this afternoons job!

What would be the meaning of the ticket being cancelled? I googled but didn’t get a clear answer; I must admit I don’t know much about merchant navy records at all.

Interesting that he might have been issued a new number, I’ll have a look at that later, thank you for the suggestion!

The navy record isn’t him, but thank you. His parents were William Cossey and Isabel nee Moore who lived in Ditchingham and Kirby Cane in Norfolk.

Thanks for replying to this - I don't believe this is the same man as after a little digging I found his marriage certificate and the father's name is different (Samuel)

I believe my Samuel died before 1853 as his brother Henry emigrated to New Zealand, and apparently descendants on that side of the family knew there had been a brother lost at sea.  Henry was illiterate, so unlikely to have corresponded with family after his emigration.

Really struggling to find any clear set of records of men lost at sea for this time period currently!

If you know where he lived, maybe electoral registers might be useful? If you could find him with a spouse and/or children, then you could track down a marriage certificate?

DNA could be a solution also, though I appreciate you might not be wanting to contact relatives, just trace them. If you did that and wanted to keep a bit of anonymity you can make the display name initials, I did this for an adoptee recently.