just been doing a little bit of rooting round, Cowpen Cemetery has burial books for lots of years, these are at Northumberland Archives, they do provide a 'search service' but for £13!!!

Thanks Julie - Woodhorn is on my "list," but as it will involve a couple of night's stay, I'm going to wait until I've got a good stock of look ups to do and then take a little break up there and perhaps to the Newcastle library as well. Ideally, it will be a once only trip to tie up any remaining loose ends. (Earliest connection with Northumberland is when my Irish brigade arrived in Newcastle in the 1850's, then my Norfolk grandfather went to sea and sailed off up there, with most of his siblings following in the 1890's. So, I'm not exactly of good Northumbrian stock!)........... I don't mind paying £13 if it's something vital I need to know and IF I know the information is definitely there, but Stephen's children and grandchildren claim not to know about him, other than he was lost at sea c1894. (And as we've proved on here, that is just a myth.)

yep, I know what you mean, someone obviously hasn't looked into this very deeply [or looked in the right place!!] to find the newspaper info of 1901.. I wonder if he was in prison at the time of the 1901 cens?

Thanks for your continued searches Julie. He could have been anywhere at 1901 census weekend - he was away in 1891 too. I'm more concerned that he seems to vanish into thin air after Bridget's death - the family home must have been packed up then and the younger boys taken in by Bridget's brother. (They hit the headlines too over the next 10 yrs - court appearances for playing rowdy games in the street, or playing brag and pitch & toss - both gambling games.) I've suggested to the direct descendent that it might be worthwhile investing in Bridget's death cert as it should say either wife of or widow of. It would also give the cause of death, which I think was probably childbirth related. I think that IF Stephen HAD been deceased by the time this last child was baptised in September 1901, then the priest would have written child of Stephen C deceased & Bridget, or child of Bridget C widow. The same priest ministered in that parish from 1862 to 1906, so he would have known about all the shenanigans of his flock!

oh definitely the death cert would prove interesting indeed, and I totally agree with what you are saying by the parish records too.. shame we can't really dig about online for those.. :(

have been hopping back and forth in the census, following different members of the family, but haven't found anything one way or the other I'm afraid.

I suspect you have seen this?

Yes, thank you for the link though, because I might NOT have seen it.

true, though I don't expect it to say dead on there, though at least you know that the last child [Martin] was Stephens, [which is very probably right, as you wouldn't dare lie to a priest, would you?] do you know what happened to him?

Martin died Q2 the following year. :( Auntie Bridget's hard life has got to me a bit. Her sisters were poor, money wise, but seemed to have had a much warmer family life.

:( thing is she probably loved Stephen as we all know, you can, and do, stick with folks for love... but it does sound like she had it hard, and end up with someone that wasn't able to look after his family after she died. sad really. :(