Weeley electoral register 1940s/50s

[Cimarra]

Hi, I think that May or Mollie were often nicknames for people baptised as Mary. I have three individuals on my Brooker tree born late 1800s/early 1900s which prove this.

[ValJJJ]

Dawnsh - that is a very kind offer so if I find a hint of a surname, I'll let you know. Trawling registers for May, or for an initial M., would be very dispiriting!

Cimarra - thanks for that nugget, I didn't know that May was a nickname for Mary.  That widens the field for other relatives with the name Mary so will have a look, even though people here have established that Mary Webb does not seem to have any connection with Weeley.

[dawnsh]

Hi again Val

Although we don't know of any connection to Weeley, you must have had a specific reason for asking for the look-up there.

Is there a family story or link/connection to the place?

[ValJJJ]

Because I went to a cousins' get-together (cousins of my generation, plus some from my mother's generation) and everyone started to talk about cousin May who lived in Weeley, asking each other where she fitted in to the family, and no-one knew.  They all knew of her but not who she was. So it's a challenge!  Bit like Everest, because it's there....

[ValJJJ]

Now I'm back on the chase again as a relative who remembers visiting cousin May says she thought she was probably of an age meaning she was born around 1895 so I suppose 1890-1900 ish, and she also thought this person was from Weeley.  No idea what she based that impression on.  She also had an idea she was a relative of Leslie Frank Jones.  I know from census records of 1901 and 1911 that his mother Lilly Isabel Jones was from Swindon, Wiltshire, as was her husband Samuel, so I can't see an obvious connection to Weeley.  I cannot find Lilly's maiden name, but an educated guess based on census info is that they married in 1895 in Highworth (part of Swindon) where Lilly's given name is shown as Lilly Isabella Harris.  Whether she kept Harris as a given name because it was her maiden name or perhaps her mother did this on her marriage, I don't know.

Possibly Samuel Jones or Lilly's siblings had children and one of those was a May who lived in Weeley?  Jones is such a common name...sigh.  I still don't know if May was married or single.

[ValJJJ]

I now know from seeing a relative's memoirs that 'cousin May' was in fact Mary Ann Sophia Webb, always known as May, who married Percy Clarke and eventually moved to Weeley.

So the many of you who posted about these two names were correct, even though there was no obvious connection to Weeley. 

Thanks to all.