Widow or Ditto? 1851!

[Sue from Southend]

Would someone please have a quick look at Mary Wheeler

HO107; Piece: 1544; Folio: 373; Page: 41; GSU roll: 174774.

and see if you think she's married or widowed .

[Merry Monty Montgomery]

Hmmmm......I really wouldn't like to say........possibly ditto? The married couple in the previous household say "do" from the first entry at the top, but her's isn't so clear.

On the next page, George Watts has widower written in full.

[Sue from Southend]

That's what I thought but I can't find her husband Robert, b1807 Shoreditch.

[Little Nell]

Well, not clear, is it!

However, looking at first person on that page, it definitely says Mar and on the following page someone else is called widowr

There are some Do and do which are easy to see, but I am not sure what your lady is -- it could be M, W or do but doesn't match anything else.

As she is described as head and is working, you might assume she is widowed, but I have instances of married women listed as head and also with occupations, so I guess the short answer is

I don't know!

[Little Nell]

Sue

have you found any possible deaths for Robert pre-1851? I know its tricky as the age at death isn't included in the index.

[Sue from Southend]

There's a possible one in 1845 - but youngest child Sarah seems to have been born in 1848. I've already got one from 1852 that was wrong! It's perfectly possible that Sarah had a different father of course! Mary's eldest child, Robert was born 18mths before she married Robert. On IGI there's no Sarah born to Robert and Mary but there's an Ann b1849 but then again it could be a different family altogether!