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Thank you TreeSpirit, I wouldn't have a cat in hell's chance of understanding all of this. I can understand the Family Search doc as it's in French! but the rest is beyond me, so thanks for the explanation.
There is no mention of Ireland on this Ostend stuff, which I find a bit worrying as the roots were in Ireland not England. The Corsham , Wiltshire idea doesn't seem to fit.

I'll try to find something on Richard King, mariner in case this throws any light on the matter.
This is my mum's line and her DNA shows 85% Ireland and 11% Europe West, so perhaps this is her little bit of Europe!
Thanks so much for your time

Kathy

I haven't found the marriage. He married Bridget Drum/Doran, I believe. I've tried Rootsireland, Ancestry, FindMyPast, and can't find their marriage. Their first child was Ann, born in Sheffield in 1834 approx and then they went to Manchester. Births on GRO give Mother as Drum. They seem to have travelled quite a bit between Sheffield and Manchester, not sure why as he was a tailor.

I'm losing sleep over this!! DNA results haven't helped either :-(
Thanks for your interest

Kathy

One of my ancestors, John King, is shown as being from Ireland in the 1841 and 1851 censuses, then suddenly, in 1861 he is a British Subject, born in Ostend. I can't believe that he would invent this as there's no reason to. He was a tailor and I don't know who is parents were.
If he really was born in Belgium it could be easier to find the rest of the family, I believed, but of course I'm having tremendous trouble and no luck so far.
Can anyone help me, please .
Incidentally I have all details of his children etc and it is just this birth that I need to solve as it may also lead me to his siblings and parents.
TIA

My 2 x g grandparents George Barden and Catherine Kirk, were married in April 1845 in Mottram Parish church, and I have the certificate. There is no mention of a name for the bride's father, and I assumed that she didn't know who her father was. I've found possible baptisms for her in Ireland ,but didn't know whether I was looking for an illegitimate child or not.
I've just looked on FindMyPast at the parish registers, and to my surprise there are loads of people where no father is mentioned, and I believe the vicar didn't bother to ask them for the info. Is this a possibility? and if so there must be lots of people like me, very frustrated! There can't have been so many illegitimate people in one town 
Catherine wasn't living with her family before she got married, so it is all down to guesswork,  tho I found a possible sibling for her in Dukinfield, Brigid Quirk.