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From: "Nancy Frey" <>
Subject: Re: [B&D] Black Widow
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:35:25 -0500
References: <9F252DE9D107492EBEA6569B780771F3@LLLLawrence> <4969338F.3050801@family-hunter.co.uk><8471D1D7F1D649C0928DAF505EF9CC3B@acer2b73192757><496A867C.1090206@family-hunter.co.uk>


Hi Charani,

How did I track her down? Well, first she gave the surname of her child by
a previous marriage on the 1891 Census when she was married to my relative.
So I looked for that marriage. She also gave her place of birth, so I
looked for her in previous Census Records. With a combination of Ancestry
Census Records, FreeBMD and IGI I assembled all the people with her maiden
surname in her place of birth and Voila! up popped the right name.

Starting with something you know, ie her previous married name, is where I
always start. My problem was that I couldn't find a suitable marriage for
her to my relative. Thank goodness she gave me that surname.

In the end, I discovered that it might not be my lady who was the black
widow, but I do have a complete record of the lady who seems to have married
at least four times in the space of 20 years, each time having children and
husband who died.

I'm still not entirely positive that there are two women involved here.
There's some anomales that I can't account for so I'm still pursuing this.
Perhaps this woman was also a bigamist and married more than one man in any
given era. It seems very strange to me that two ladies with the name Mary
Ann born in the same county would marry men with the same name from another
county.

For the benefit of those who are just starting their research, I strongly
advise using a combination of the sources noted above when you can't get to
a Record Office. I also use Hugh Wallis' site when I have narrowed down my
search to one village, that's if it has been transcribed, lol. I print out
all the baptisms and marriages on separate pages, then fill in the names of
the parents or spouses and try to make family groups of them. Sometimes
everything falls into place, and other times, I have to look in neighbouring
parishes for baptisms. Often, the first child is baptised in a parish other
than where the family lives, either the wife's or the husband's.

It is really just a big jig-saw puzzle and you arrange the pieces until you
get a fit then try to prove it. So happy hunting to all you newbies. Hope
my info has been helpful.

Regards,

Nancy Frey
Newcastle, Ontario, CANADA
OPC for Ansford & Castle Cary, Somerset
Moderator of Yahoo! Catsash Group
Moderator of Yahoo! FULFORD_North Devon Group
Moderator of Yahoo! DAVIDGE Connections Group

Charani wrote:

Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire are out of area but how you tracked
her down to her roots would be interesting. It might just prove
beneficial to others who have an ancestor with a wife whose surname is
unknown.

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