RootsChat.Com

Hi Kate,
Olive and the two children were living at 3 St Georges Ave, South Parade, Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorks in the 1939 Register.  William, her husband, is not in the household; he may already be in the services, but I was unable to find him.

Hi Annie,
Sorry, the Olive May we're discussing married a William Londesborough Ellerker; her maiden name was Wisher, so the birth you found in 1908 is not for her.  Our Olive's birth was registered in Q3, 1901 in Grimsby r.d.  Thanks for the lookup, though.

Richard,

Many thanks for your detailed information about Arthur's family, and also my apologies for not replying sooner (family matters, of the living kind!).

First to answer your last question.  I'm related to Arthur through his older brother, James (1860-1922).  My paternal grandmother was Gertrude Denny (1906-1968), who was a grand-daughter of James via his son James (1885-1933).  My interest in the Denny family is centered mainly on those who stayed in Nottingham, though I'm also quite familiar with their family in Coventry. 
I don't know if you have access to Find My Past or any of the other sites that have digitized newspapers, but I'm going to transcribe an article which was in the Nottingham Evening Post, dated 1 February, 1902:
"LONG SERVICE MEDAL
Among the recipients of the medal for long service and good conduct in the current  army orders is Colour-Sergent Arthur Denny, Derbyshire  Regiment.  Colour Sergent Denny enlisted in the Derbyshire regiment in 1883, and has served continuously in that regiment from that date. He was promoted sergent in December, 1888, and transferred to the 3rd Battalion, Derbyshire Regiment, in 1893 for duty on the permanent staff, being promoted colour-sergent in 1895."
I also have another child for Arthur and Annie, other than those you mentioned, and her name was Sarah Ann(e).  Her birth was registered in 1891 under the 45th regiment overseas births (the same method as her other siblings).  I also have a death for Sarah Ann(e) in 1893 in the Shardlow registration district.
So how are you related to Arthur?  All the Richards I have in my Denny tree are from the 17- and 1800s 
Take care.
Denise

Godfrey,

You deserve a gold star!  This is definitely her.  I have a marriage between an Eric Wisher and Edith Asher in 1940 in Derby.  There is also another daughter, Ann, born in 1942.

As you say, there are many transcription errors and with such an uncommon surname as Wisher I've come across some over the years.  I was once contacted by a guy who couldn't find anything out about his family at all.  Going on the information he gave me, nothing fit in anywhere.  Like you it niggled and  bubbled until I did some serious digging...found out he wasn't a Wisher at all, but Wisker!  He'd spent his whole life using a surname that his Dad, for whatever reason, deliberately mis-spelled when registering the birth (his parents marriage was down as Wisker, so it's very weird).

Anyway, many thanks again!
Denise, in drizzly Vancouver

My one name study is the surname WISHER, which is predominantly a Midlands name.

I have managed to trace the line back to the late 1600s to east Nottinghamshire.  Various off-shoots migrated into the adjacent counties of Derbyshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire, and into London.

Variant spellings I've discovered - WHISHER, WISSAW, WISSER, WISHSHAW, WISHEAR, WISHAW.

Denise