Which wedding?

[mezentia]

I got a copy recently of my Gt Gt Grandfather's marriage certificate for his second marriage. Amongst other things, I'm trying to find out who his real parents are. The certificate said he was a widower when he married. I have his birthdate as 1856 +/- 1 year, and his second marriage is Dec 1880. I've checked the marriage index on Ancestry for every year from 1870 to 1880, but can't find an obvious marriage (there's only 142 possibles!!) which would have been in Ripon, since he seemed to have lived most of his life there.

Other than shelling out £7 a time for a marriage certificate on the chance it's the right one, is there any other way of finding out who he might have married? The other information I have is his occupation (currier), and possibly who his father is from his 1880 marriage certificate, although I suspect this might not  actually be true! I have census entries for him from 1871 to 1901: sadly he does not appear on the 1861 census (he would have been about 5 years old). I think there are some Ripon entries missing for that year?

His name is George Anderson. His census entries are:

1871 RG10 Piece 4003 Folio 68 Page 36 - Living with his uncle in Hulme
1881 RG11 Piece 4317 Folio 118 Page 6 - married in Ripon
1891 RG12 Piece 3510 Folio 105 Page 17 and
         RG12 Piece 3510 Folio 105 Page 18
1901 RG13 Piece 4040 Folio 61 Page 7

I think I've found his birth index entry - it doesn't show up on FreeBMD, but I've scanned the index entries and found one for Ripon in the right year. I've now got this on order, but it's the first marriage bit that's now intiguing me.

Any ideas on how to track own the right marriage will be gratefully received.

Regards

David Dewick

[PaulineJ]

If in 1871, he's living with his uncle.

Is it an uncle of his father's side?
Can we trace Uncle back to 1861 & 1851, looking for (candidates to be) George's father?

Pauline

Also try looking for deaths of female Anderson's who could have been his first wife (age ~20-30). An unusual forename may turn up  to help....

[CatOne]

The uncles married to Alice nee Anderson, his mother Sarah's sister...... (also with the family in 1871, shes with Frederick and Alice in 1861 too)....looks like George is illegitimate which could mean the space for the father on the birth cert. will be blank....

[mezentia]

The 1871 census return in full is:

RG10 Piece 4003 Folio 68 Page 36
181 Stretford Road, Hulme, Lancashire

Frederick Hullah   Head   Mar   39   Currier   London, Middlesex
Alice (née Anderson)   Wife   Mar   40      Yorkshire, Ripon
Sarah Anderson   Sister-in-Law   Unm   42   Formerly Laundress   Yorkshire, Ripon
George Anderson   Nephew   Unm   15   Currier apprentice   Yorkshire, Ripon

I know that Alice and Sarah are sisters, and that Sarah never married. Sarah stayed with Alice and her husband, and both Alice and Sarah died within weeks of each other.

The census seems to indicate that George was possibly Sarah's illegitimate son, but on his marriage certificate to his second wife, Alice Foster, his father is down as Henry Anderson, Alice and Sarah's brother. It's a pity George's not on the 1861 census, unless I'm looking in the wrong place.

Henry married in 1854 - I have a copy of the certificate. However, his first child (if this wasn't George) wasn't born until 1859. That's quite a long gap, so it's entirely possible there were other earlier children, and possibly George was one of them. Could George have been farmed out because Henry and his wife couldn't afford to keep him? 

As George was living in Hulme in 1871, but had moved back to Ripon by 1880, I could, I suppose, whittle down the 142 possible George Anderson marriages by only considering those in Lancashire and Yorkshire. That still leaves a lot, though. If we assume he married after the age of 18, we can whittle down the number a few more by only considering marriages between 1874 and 1880.

I though of looking for Anderson deaths, but there's an awful lot, so finding the right one is just as much a needle in a haystack.

On the website where you order the certificates, I've spotted that you can request look-ups to make sure that you get the certificate you want. Has anyone used this facility, and if so, what information is needed to make best use of it?

There is a marriage entry for George Henry Anderson in 1871 in Chorlton. Since this is the same district where his aunt's Alice and Sarah had their deaths registered, is this a reasonable possiblity, although George would have been only 16-17? Did people get married that young in the mid-late 1800s?

David

[MaryA]

I would have thought that if he was Sarah's child he would have been with her in 1861 but he isn't ... There's also the thought that he might have been the child of one of the other brothers, either John or William, have you traced them forward to see if they still lived in the area and what children they had with them?

[CatOne]

In 1861 theres a 5 yr old George Anderson with parents Henry (29, Pipe maker born Ripon) and Elizabeth (28 born Ripon) + siblings Alice Ann (7) and Sarah (2). Could this be him? RG9/3196 Folio 91 Page 9 (didnt see this family at first, because its been transcribed as ?? ??, only name that appears is George ?? born Ripon c1836!)

Address - Priest lane, Ripon

[CatOne]

Marriage of Henry and Elizabeth??

Henry Anderson March 1854 Ripon Vol 9a Page 83
Brides listed - Elizabeth Foxton or Sarah Needham

[mezentia]

Thanks CatOne

I'd not got round to District 5f yet, I was still searching Stammergate in District 7f (only 41 pages!), and I'd have never thought to search on ?? ??  I'd tried Geo* and And* together and separately with no luck, and now I know why.

And not only have you tracked down George, but Elizabeth Foxton's mum and dad are two doors away! And I wonder if the Foxtons next door to them are relatives too! Plus there's another child, Alice Ann, I didn't know about - I thought that there was too big a gap between the marriage and the first child.

Thanks too to Mary. Henry Anderson and Elizabeth Foxton are George's mum and dad. There are two Elizabeth Foxtons in Ripon about that time and it took me a little while to sort them out. A case of not reading the census returns accurately or I would have spotted that the ages were all wrong for one of them.

As for George's brothers John and William, William I know married an Ann and lived in Unicorn Yard in Leeds (Unicorn Yard, what a wonderful address!!). However, I've lost track of them after 1851. They had a son, George Arey, but the census image is poor (HO107 Piece 2321 Folio 681 Page 28) and I can't make out the second name with any certainty. John I've not traced yet.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

David

[CatOne]

Think the middle name must be Arey -

Marriage -
William Anderson June 1847 Leeds Vol 23 page 421
Brides - Ann Arey, Sarah Fawcett or Terrisa Fitzpatrick