WELHAM/HOWELL brickwall

[Pandabeary]

Thanks everyone so much for your help, it's really opened up my search and solved the mystery of Harry's 'other' mother! I will now check out the James Keeble / Ann Howell marriage certificate and as a James Keeble died in Bosmere district in 1893 that looks likely and explains why Ann was a widow in 1901. He was aged 75 then though so would have been an awful lot older than her!

I had found this Ben Johnson Howell before but discounted him as he married someone other than Ellen / Ann Welham, even though his occupation fits Harry's birth certificate and year of death fits with Harry's father being dead when he married, and it's a pretty unusual name.

Given that Ben was marrying Lydia Wright only 6 months after Harry's birth, and we cant find a Welham / Howell marriage, should I assume that Ben Howell and Ann Welham were never actually married and therefore Harry was illegitimate? Could a woman say she was Ellen Howell nee Welham without having to prove it?
Thanks again,
Charlotte

[Pandabeary]

Marriage certificate arrived. Ann Howell age 50 married James Keeble age 70, so that fits with the death of James Keeble I found. It doesn't fit with Ann Howell being born in Battisford in 1842 though, is it likely the registrar rounded up her age? She is recorded as a widow but I still can't find any marriage between her and Benjamin Howell - perhaps they never were and she simply took his name? She lists her father as George Welham, a deceased farm labourer, so that fits with her being the daughter of George and Eliza Welham even if the age is slightly out. I have no idea why she was recorded as Ellen on 1868 certificate and 1881 census but given the mention of the surnames Howell and Welham on the same certificate and the later census record she must be Harry's mother and he was indeed with his grandparents in Suffolk in 1871 and 1881 censuses. Thanks for all the tips, I'm now starting on the next generation of Welhams, and still mulling over the strange Benjamin Howell angle.

[Dawn Smith]

My husbands family on his mothers side are Welhams in Suffolk.  They had a farm just yards away from the The Railway Tavern pub in Cotton on the oppersite side of the road.  My mother in law had loads of cousins on the Welham side so it is quite possible that there is a link given the locations being so close and Welham does seem to be a Suffolk name