Apart from where my g.grandfather came from before he fathered my gran who was born in 1884 remains a mystery despite everyone, including Rootschatters, trying to find him, the other mystery is what happened to my husband's 2 x g.grandfather James Connor. Born in Dublin around 1823, on the 1841 census in Liverpool with his parents and a younger brother (who also disappeared), on 1851 census with his wife Mary Ann, and child in Manchester (he married in Liverpool Register Office in 1849, he a Catholic his wife not). Last mentioned in a trade directory in Manchester in 1855 as a cabinet maker. I can't find him, his wife or daughter on the 1861 census, but in 1862 his wife had an illegitimate daughter born in Reyner Street, Manchester, the same address (thanks to a Rootschatter) I found out she was paying rates in 1864, 65, 66, 67 and 68. I think she died in a workhouse in Withington, Manchester in Sept 1868, although the age given on the cert is out by a couple of years.
There are loads of deaths for James Connor in Manchester around the period he is missing, so it's possible he's died. I've already bought 2 wrong ones. I guess I'll look on GRO Indexes now to see if I can find one of the correct age. Of course it's possible he just split up from his wife and went elsewhere, although his father stayed in Liverpool (re-marrying in an RC Church) until his death in 1878.
