He was right under my nose!

[Somerset Sal]

I just wanted to share a small - ok, make that tiny - triumph...

I was looking for information about a relative called Ellen Bridget Wade; I discovered that her husband, George Tabor, died in 1903. I couldn't find a death record for her, so wondered if she'd got married again. Sure enough, there she was in the BMD index, getting married again in 1904. But I couldn't find out which of the two men listed on that page she married: William Spicer or Branch (?!) Charles E Taylor.

I went round and round in circles trying to find anything that linked either man to a wife called Ellen, but with no luck. Then, on an impulse, I went back to the 1901 census and there she is, living with husband Charles - and a boarder called William Spicer!

[Uncle John]

It does pay to look carefully at the census. In successive censuses I had a widow and her unmarried daughter as "proprietor of lodging house". In one census they have a male lodger. By the next census mum has died and the 45-year-old spinster has married the lodger.