My greatgrandmother was Jane Fletcher Gibson. The first trace of her I have is the 1871 census when she is aged 2 and living with her parents Nathan and Ellen Gibson in Dalton, Lancashire. (Nathan and Ellen crop up here and there as Nathaniel and Eleanor.) Nathan married Ellen Young in 1865 and I've found a William (b. 1868) and two Hannahs (b. 1867, d. 1869, and b. & d. 1872) who appear to be children of theirs but no trace of Jane's birth.
Nathan died in 1874 back in Cumberland, and I haven't found a clear sighting of Ellen and Jane in the 1881 census. However, in Everton, Lancs there is:
James Merdith of Cumberland,
his wife, Ellen, of Gosfer (no county listed),
James Merdith, son, aged 11, born Liverpool,
Jane Gibson, daughter, aged 5, born Workington, Cumberland
A James Meredith was born to James and Ellen and christened in Workington on 22nd June 1876, so I am wondering if this is the right family with a few recording errors. Or perhaps James wasn't on the ball with information. His wife was from Goseforth which sounds suspiciously like Gosfer, and it seems the childrens ages and birthplaces have been transposed. This would also mean that James got his stepdaughter's birthplace wrong.
I can't find a marriage for James and Ellen so don't know if she was a widow.
Also, I can't find Jane on the 1891 census. In November that year she married my greatgrandad Henry Summersgill. her address was 50 Stone Hill St, Walton, Lancs, but that house was empty when the 1891 census was taken. Her marriage certificate is the first time the middle name Fletcher crops up (it doesn't appear to be a family name) and one of the witnesses to the marriage was a J. Fletcher. I speculate that she may have been living/friends with a family called Fletcher but it's a wild guess.
Jane is a mystery.
