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An ancestor of mine, Walter England SOUTHCOTT, married a Virginia Mary Courtenay LEWIS on 2nd July 1910 at All Saints Church, Tientsin, China.

I now have the marriage certificate and she claims to be a spinster and her father to be Charles William LEWIS stock broker.

On the wedding invitation sent to my grandfather, it states that Mr. & Mrs. F. W. Ritter request the honour of his presence at the marriage of their sister Virginia Courtenay LEWIS etc etc.  One of the witnesses on the marriage certificate is Franz Walther RITTER.

I was browsing the internet and came across a snippet of information from, I think, an American magazine called WASP, dated July to December 1910, which stated:   Mrs. Virginia Courtenay  LEWIS, who was recently married to Walter E. SOUTHCOTT of Tientsin, China was formerly the wife of Lieutenant Victor LEWIS.

Why state that she was a spinster if she has been married before?  Whose sister is she - Mr F. W Ritter's or his wife's, maiden name unknown?

A New York Passenger List 1915, gives her age as 44 years, thereby giving a birth year of c.1871.  It also states that her nationality is English.

Can anyone help unravel who she is?  I'm going round in circles with this!

Does anyone have a Florence Emily LLOYD or possibly Emily LLOYD in their family tree?  She would have been born around 1874 and in the 1911 census she gives her place of birth as Colwall, Herefordshire.

She is living with my great grandfather James ENGLAND as his wife with their daughter Lilian Olga Violet ENGLAND.  Their address in 1911 is 286 Holloway Road, London.

One snag - James was already married to my great grandmother Clara (Carrie) Ann KNOWLING.  He married Carrie Ann in 1886.  Carrie Ann died in 1918 and James died in 1920.  In theory James could have married Florence in the two years between his legal wife's death and his own in 1920, but I've never found any record of a marriage between them.

In the 1939 Register I found what I think is probably Florence as a patient in the North Middlesex County Hospital.  It gives her date of birth as 28 November 1875 and she is stated as being widowed which would be correct.  I also found what I suspect is her death registered in SQ 1944 Willesden 3A 359 - the certificate is still to be obtained.

I am trying to link her to her birth family but struggling to do this.  I found an Emily LLOYD in the 1881 census living at 2 Pullens Row, Colwell with a birth year of 1873 and birthplace of Burghill.  Not sure if this is the correct family.  Cannot seem to find her in either 1891 or 1901 as either Emily or Florence Emily.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Does anyone know where I could obtain a photo of 27 Duke Street, Brighton in the 1930's?  I found an advertisement regarding this address which indicated that it was a music shop.