Holton: Death of Martha BENSLEY

[johnscotchpiper]

I am having no luck in tracing a death record for Martha Bensley (nee Tooke) born abt 1780 (in Holton according to the 1851 census record).

In 1841 she is in Holton aged 60.
In 1851 she is in Holton aged 71.
I cannot find her in 1861.

I have trawled through the Ancestry complete death records (and FreeBMD) for her without any success. The death of a Martha Bensly (sic) in Yarmouth in Apr/Jun 1860 is not her.

She may, of course, have moved out of Suffolk but the rest of her family remained in the county.

Has anyone come across her in any parish records? I'm not sure what parish(es) may be involved; there are family connections in the Halesworth/Blything areas.

Any help would be appreciated.

[lizdb]

I'm not much help, and do not have access to the parish records, but thought I would try and summarize the possible scenarios in this case, which then of course have to be ruled out one by one!

Either:
a) she does not die 1851-1861, in which case she is somewhere in the 1861 census, maybe staying in a different area with rellies, maybe her name badly  written and wrongly transcribed in the census indexes.

b)She does die, but it is registered under a name other than Martha. If censuses are the only source you have found her on, then this a possibility. Often people gave the name they were generally known as to the cenusus enumerator, but used their official name for births/marriages/deaths. There are several deaths, for example, in those years, for Mary Bensleys in Yarmouth reg dist

[johnscotchpiper]

Thanks lizdb.

I have considered both scenarios.

a) I searched right through to 1890 for her in the death records
b) this is certainly a possibility even though her Holton marriage record and the baptism records for her children give her name as Martha. I thought that perhaps her age may show up under a different first name somewhere! Wishful thinking but I am desperate!

Thanks again.