Alison
My g.gran was called Maria Collett, her first husband was John Alden, but she changed her name to Maria Wright at some point. She is shown on my gran's birth certificate in 1884 as Maria Wright, late Alden, formerly Collett. On her death certificate, the informant was George William Wright, widower of deceased. However, I cannot find a marriage for George and Maria.
As I mentioned before, she is on the 1881 census as Maria Alden (actually mistranscribed as Abden) a widow, but I have searched for a marriage to George from the mid 1870s, even though her youngest Alden child was born in 1878 and that child's father is shown as deceased on the birth certificate.
Thank you Crystal,
I'll try to follow Charles Joseph Wright to see if he had a son called George William. It's just that his mother was apparently called Da Costa. I always knew my dad's grandmother was either Spanish or Portuguese, but never knew the surname.
At the time it didn't occur to me to ask about her. I'm not sure why I didn't ask any questions because although I was a child, I did know the names of my mother's grandparents. Maybe that was because my gran lived with us, so there was more discussion/reminiscences going on around me. My aunt says George's mother's surname was Da Costa, my dad who died in 2001, used to say it was Carreras or something similar like the tobacco company. In fact he said that he was descended from one of the sons who was the black sheep of the family and was thrown out and made his way to England! As my dad used to tell us stories, none of which I've proved to be true yet, that is probably just another of his tales.
Lizzie
