Lucy COWLEY (b. abt 1831, Sheffield) married George Vauxhall in 1852 in Sheffield registration district (source: FreeBMD). The births of four of their children were registered under mother's maiden name Cowley, but one was registered with m.m.n. MAHOOD and one with MOULD (source: GRO Online Index. A seventh child was not registered).
When Lucy remarried in 1873 to William Swales, she gave her father's name as Samuel MOREWOOD (source: Findmypast, "Yorkshire Marriages").
In the 1891 and 1901 censuses, living with Lucy is a "niece", Pollie MAWHOOD (b. 1884 in Colne, Lancs). I believe Pollie is the daughter of Mary Ann Parkin and Samuel Mawhood (b. 1842, Sheffield, m. 1863) - and in turn that Samuel's parents were Samuel Mawhood and Ann Cowley (source: Findmypast, "Yorkshire Marriages"; GRO Online Index; 1861 and 1871 censuses).
My hypothesis is that Mahood/Mawhood/Morewood/Mould are all attempts to write down the same surname, and that Lucy Cowley and Samuel Mawhood, junior, were (half?-)siblings, i.e. that they named the same father at their respective marriages. (The two fathers' occupations don't quite tally but I suspect there is a mistake on Samuel, jr's marriage record, and that his father's occupation has been switched with the bride's father's.)
I can't seem to find any of these people on the 1841 or 1851 censuses.
Can anyone identify a marriage between Samuel Mawhood, senior, and Ann Cowley, before 1842, probably in Sheffield?...
...or help me to explain why Lucy sometimes used the surname Ma[w]hood/Morewood/Mould and sometimes Cowley? Was she the illegitimate daughter of Ann Cowley?
