* Check out everybody

[gwilym'smum]

When looking at censuses and certificates don't dismiss witnesses, informants etc they may lead you to a proof that you are seeking.
I had a rather far fetched theory about my great grandmother. In 1891 she was listed as having son born in 1881. She was not married until 5 years later and there was no sign of a Joshua born in or around that date. The only on was a Joshua with another name. I researched in and around these people and in 1881 found a man living with a Mary aged 18 (2 years older than my Mary) but with a baby of 21 days which matched the birth cert I had for the only Joshua I had found. The census had the unusual comment that the Mary with an unreadable name, but born in the right place, said "living as wife". With them was a lodger, Alice Hunt.
I had my ggrand mother's marriage, 5 years later, with witnesses, William and Alice Garner. I did not know them. I had checked out a marriage for William to see if Alice was a relative who had married William. The name was Alice Hunt. I had had this latter information for a few years and it was about 12 months ago when I found the unlikely 1881 census for Mary. I still did not connect the dots until this morning when the two pieces of information were side by side.
Alice's presence in the household of Mary and her baby with the man I thought was the father linked them by her being a witness on Mary's future marriage to Thomas Yale. It is a very complex family with problems on every person but digging into the lives of the witnesses and lodgers lead me to confirm what I thought was sad. Mary was barely 16 when she had Joshua and Joshua died aged 19 run over by a railway waggon. There are still lots of things to find out but I won't ignore anyone.

[jmurphy]

This is an excellent example of why it's important to examine records both individually and as a group.