Dear Chatters,
Congratulations on the fabulous job that you've been doing with the research on my great-grandfather, Edwin Turner Osbaldeston. Even though I've been researching his life since 1996 you've come up with a few items that I hadn't found. It's been great following your posts. Thank you all for your time and efforts. As you can see, I've now registered with RootsChat and will be able to provide answers to many of your questions regarding ETO and various family members. However I need to ask for your patience. I'm still in the UK doing family history research and will not have a lot of time to log on until the end of May-beginning of June.
Before I log off, I thought you might like to know that not only does the parish register entry for the marriage of my great-great-grandmother Mary Ann TURNER and James HUBBARD -- which I hadn't seen before -- reveal the identity of the witnesses to ETO's marriage to Ann PRATT, but it also answers a question I've had ever since I visited the Bristol Record Office in 2001.
On the paperwork that was filled out when ETO's mother Mary Ann TURNER was committed to the Bristol Lunatic Asylum, Fishponds, Stapleton, Glos. on 26 July 1876 her occupation was listed as "wife of a chairmaker" and her husband's name was recorded as James Turner. I had long wondered if this was misinformation supplied by Josiah Scudder OSBALDESTON. Judging by the description of her symptoms and her medical notes it sounds as though she was suffering from senile dementia. She died in the asylum on 23 June 1878.
So it appears that Mary Ann TURNER had had enough of JSO and decided to marry neighbour James HUBBARD. WOW!!! By the way, I found JSO in the 1861 census living in a boarding house in Wolverhampton. His name was recorded as Joseph rather than Josiah and his age is incorrect. However his occupation and place of birth are correct so I'm convinced that it is JSO.
If one of you has a chance, would you mind looking for James and Mary Ann HUBBARD in the 1871 census in Bristol --possibly on Prince's St in Bedminster. In an article entitled “Had a Life of Adventure,” Detroit Free Press, Sunday, 9 January 1898, her youngest son Julian mentioned that he/they moved to Bristol in 1866.
Must go now but will be back in touch soon.