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« on: Sunday 17 August 14 09:58 BST (UK) »
Hi, i hope you can help a novice please.
I've started looking along my Dad's Mum's line of the family.
I have a photocopy of her birth certificate (Vesta Vick) so I know her parents names (Thomas and Elizabeth) and Dad remembers the names of some Aunts etc so I know I've found the right people on the 1911 Census but by then Elizabeth was a widow now 43 - her 2 eldest children were Ethel 22 and Thomas 21.
I have a photocopy of Thomas and Elizabeth's marriage certificate in Middlesex, April 1988 when he was 27 which states his father was also called Thomas Vick and was a Tailor.
The 1891 Census, in London, shows Thomas Vick age 30 was born in Cheltenham plus wife Elizabeth, 23, daughter Ethel 2 and son Thomas 1 all born in London. So that looks pretty promising.
The only Thomas Vick born around 1860 in Cheltenham I can find was born to a Thomas Vick (who was born in Malmesbury) and Ann (formerly Oakley, & with 2 sons by a previous marriage) and is on the 1861 Census with them as a 1 year old with a sister Ellen aged 3.
By 1871 Ann Vick with one son of previous marriage, daughter Ellen & son Thomas of the right age is down as the Head and a widow.
I cannot find a death registered for Thomas Vick in the appropriate timescale.
There is a Thomas Vick of the right age and born in Malmesbury as a boarder with Selina Pike in Trowbridge - the handwriting is difficult but looks like both classed as unmarried.
The 1881 Census shows Selina Pike married to a Thomas Vick apparently born in Trowbridge and 1 year younger than I'd have expected.
Is this the right Thomas Vick - how can I be fairly sure?
Has he been a naughty boy?
Are there other avenues I can check, for this line and the other lines of the family, so that I can be sure I have the right people, or can you never be really sure?
My head hurts trying to work this out!!
Any help or advice offered is welcome
Many thanks
Jan