I am becoming convinced that the couple I'm trying to research took steps to ensure they would frustrate all such attempts. I've posted here before about Charles John Scott who turned out to be John Charles. Having discovered that, I thought it would be straightforward, but no. He "married" Ethel Walker (very distinctive name, that) but there is no record of their marriage. So, knowing that she remarried after John's death, to someone called Jack Crofts, we found her death record as Ethel Crofts, with a date of birth on it. Trouble is, the place of death is obviously wrong, confused with another grandma in the family. So all we can do now is send for her second marriage certificate, in hopes that it will give us her father's name. And this is in the 20th century! I bet he was called William or John, so then I'll be scouring the 1901 census for a possible family. Since I gather that she was a woman who was universally disliked, I'm sure she's looking down and cackling.
