My great-grandfather, Cornelius John Townsend, married Sarah Thompson in 1902 at St Luke's, Weaste, Salford, aged 21; I have a copy of their marriage certificate, and I know that this is the right couple (other family members are sure she came from Penrith, and this is given as her birthplace on the 1891 and 1901 censuses). She does age rather rapidly on marriage, going from 16 in 1901 to twenty in 1902, however..
The problem is, I can't find a trace of him anywhere else. I can't find a birth for him, nor find him on any census. On the marriage certificate, his father is given as James Townsend, deceased, a manager, and his address is given as the same as that of his wife's family. I can imagine him escaping a couple of censuses, but registration of his birth as well?
I'm not sure where to go next with this, and the older members of the family don't seem to know anything of his origins. He was an extraordinary man, a steel erector who went from going round with a wheelbarrow and ladder to founding a very successful firm which erected a lot of buildings in the Manchester area after the war ; he was a mayor of Salford, and got the OBE. I just about remember him from when I was very small, a formidable little man.
I've managed to trace other branches of the family back to the early 17th century in some cases, and it seems daft that I can't even start with someone I actually knew! Can anybody help?
