Hi Carole,
Thanks for looking for Margery and Lewis, he is a real mystery.......
I went to the LRO yesterday. I found the marrriages of both their daughters Mary and Margery Formby in 1879 at St Mary's, Walton. Both grooms had the father James Rimmer so it is likely they were brothers.
I did manage to find the marriage of Lewis and Margery in St James, Toxteth (I wonder why they went all the way there from Formby?). Lewis' father was named as Thomas Formby, occupation - tailor, which rather threw me as I was expecting a different name. Either, coincidently, the family that took him in was named Formby or the vicar assumed that Thomas the tailor was his real father and therefore the same surname when in fact it was something else.
I have put a post on this morning to see if there is a Thomas Formby that matches in the 1841/51 census.
I was allowed to look through a list of shipwrecks off the Lancashire coast but there was no mention of an Italian ship. however there was a schooner (so we are not talking fishing boat here) which floundered in Formby channel on 23/11/1821 but name, cargo and destination unknown, suggesting no survivors. It's the right time scale but I may be jumping to conclusions.
Will keep on looking, any ideas let me know!
Regards
Sue