Mysterious Extra Child

[Cotton Reel]

Hello Rootschatters,
   
   I'm new here and hoping with some help from you experienced researchers
that I can solve this mystery. I have a subscription to FindMyPast, but they don't seem to have Parish Registers of Leeds Churches.
   
   My great grandparents James and Mary Elizabeth Morris married in Leeds
Yorkshire in 1881 and lived there all their married life. They had 4 children listed in the 1891 and 1901 censuses. In 1911 there were 3 of them still living at home, my grandmother was working away though still single.
   
   I have always known of these 4, but never heard about a 5th child born, who was still living in 1911 as stated on the census form. Great grandfather was a policeman on the first two censuses, in 1911 was a police pensioner and casual attendant.

   Hope I have given you enough info to help me.

      Kind regards to all 

[giggsycat]

Hi Cotton Reel

You haven't told us where they were in 1911. Or names of any of the children. Or where and when they were born. Neither have you said when and where the parents were born!

Could you supply the Census Reference please?


Cheers

Giggsy 

[Jool]

Hi Cotton Reel, welcome to Rootschat 

If I have the correct family, Mary Elizabeth's maiden name was COTTON (as I'm sure you already know).

Have you tried searching the GRO Index for births of children with the surname Morris in the area in the relevant time frame with mother's maiden name Cotton.

https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/login.asp

You need to register but it's free to search the indexes.

[Cotton Reel]

Thank you for replies and welcome Giggsy and Jool.

   I've only been doing my family tree for a few months and am very much a
beginner. I would give the Census Reference if only I knew where to find it!

   James was born in Hull 1855 and Mary Elizabeth Cotton (you were Correct
Jool) Woodbridge Suffolk. The children were all born in Leeds Martha 1882,
Hyacinth 1884, James Clifford 1886 and Leslie 1891.

      Kind regards

[Jool]

Hi Cotton Reel, now that you have confirmed the family, here's the link to the 1911 census transcription on Family Search, just to help others who may be searching.

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XWV7-67L

[chempat]

Presumably your grandmother was Hyacinth, who the GRO shows as Morris/Colton, if you are doing searches to cross-check.

[Ayashi]

What an odd one. I can't see a birth entry either. Four of the children have christening entries on Ancestry but no unknown child there either. I am wondering vaguely if number 5 was a pre-marriage child (one of my ancestors counted her illegitimate as a child of her marriage, although hubby was living in a different house at the time and he did not!), an illegitimate child of one of the daughters (although that wouldn't account for where the child was, but would explain the lack of Morris/Cotton birth)...

Or an outside chance that they simply couldn't count? 

[chempat]

Those explanations that Ayesha gave are ones that I also thought were possible. 

[Gan Yam]

There is a child Florence Elizabeth Cotton born in Woodbridge in 1876 no mmn living with her grandparents, James and Martha in the 1881 census, could this be the 5th child?