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[Sloe Gin]

Mercantile just means commercial or trade.  Most clerks would be based in an office, I wouldn't see this as an occupation particularly likely to involve foreign travel.

You mention a possible connection with the shipbuilding Harland family, have you looked into them at all?

[majnan75]

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[Orpheus]

As there are no HARLAND births, marriages or deaths in Reading Registration District between 1837 and 1900 I wonder if you had considered that her birth name might not be HARLAND?  She might have been a widow when she married (or cohabited) with Henry John, having previously been married to a HARLAND.  Also, she could have taken the name HARLAND if her mother (either widowed or single) subsequently married a man of that name.  Although costly it might be an idea to get birth certificates for her other children to see if she always gave HARLAND as her maiden name.

[Marmaduke 123]

I wonder if Ethel had been married before? Or was still married to someone else? Might be worth getting the other children's birth certificates to see if the mother's (and father's) name is the same? Doris and Reginald are with her in 1901 and 1911. She said she had two children, none died , in 1911. Probably she had misunderstood the question .......... She also said she had been married for 20 years.

Doris Cordelia Cumby Apr/Jun 1892 Richmond S. 2a 401
Reginald Cumby Jan/Mar 1897 Fulham 1a 195

I notice all the children at the West London Parish School in Staines have no place of birth given, so I don't necessarily think it means no contact with  his mother.

I looked at the 1871 census for Ethel M (anything) born Reading c. 1865, and there aren't very many. It might be worth following them all up? There is an Ethel M Miller aged 3, daughter of an army captain on half pay. She is at school in East Grinstead in 1881, and is an Ethel Maud. I don't see her on a quick look in 1891.

They're not at 1 Chivalry road in 1891 - it's a Potts family.


Anne

Sorry Orpheus - we had the same thought at the same time

[majnan75]

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