Hi Mike, glad to see it has, or at least looks like been sorted out, but that 1851 for Thomas Smith really has me ( at least) puzzled!
Who was the Sophia who married possiby George Oates?
When was Harriet Oates christened, also why large gap between Harriett and Joseph Oates?
More questions than answers!!
Keyboard86
And Thanks Karenlee and KeyBd! Yes, the waters get muddier and more complicated with each post. Seems like I opened a can of worms... all in the name of another problem entirely!
I have the Cathedral St Peter, Sheffield marriage index, and no George Oates & Sophia marriage shows-up in any of the expected periods, (1823 or earlier) so maybe theirs was a Rotherham marriage too (same as her later marriage to Alfred Holden). And yes,,,, who is Thomas Smith with whom she and son Joseph are residing in 1851!?... in Surrey! -- or is that the mother of all coincidences as it pertains to names, dates and ages!?
OK, so, presumptively:
Sophia marries George Oates, (who, it appears, is considerably older than she), somewhere in S. YKS prior to 1823 and George dies in 1837 but not before having fathered two children with Sophia (assuming she is the birth-mother of both Harriet and Joseph). A year after the death of husband George Oates, Sophia marries Alfred Holden (who is himself half her age) in the 4th qtr of 1838 in Rotherham, and they almost immediately move to London (maybe occupationally-related as that pertains to Alfred being a slater) ... they seperate or divorce prior to 1851, and she takes up with (or more correctly marries) Thomas Smith in Surrey... Meanwhile, Alfred Holden heads back to Sheffield, where in 1861 he is recorded as a widower, (a census term of his own choosing which he prefers over "divorced"), prior to which she, having seen the light, leaves Thomas Smith, and follows Alfred back up to Sheffield, where, incredibly, she does in fact die in 1860, thus lending some indirect validity to Alfred's "widowed" status claim in the 1861 census.
Sorted!!
.... (or maybe not)
(And no, none of these are related to me, thank goodness)
Mike
