The Eliza Baker (Halliday) obit is interesting - firstly she dies in 1897, 23 years after George Baker married Mary Iles, so this isn't a case where the son never knew his mother because she died when the son was very young. And yet on George's marriage cert. to Mary Iles it says mother unknown. I also don't get the impression that this is a family where young children were sent away or otherwise alienated from their parents - from the obit, it sounds like the family were close. So again, I feel like George would have known Eliza if he were her son. It's a lot to read into an obit, I know... but you gotta work with what you've got!