Hi, firstly, thank you all for your very helpful comments, it is appreciated a great deal.
The requested info as I have it...
My mother shares the same name as my grandmother i.e. Alice Maude, with an E, she is most adamant about the E. My mother had two brothers and one sister, making for reference points on the BMD records. Where applicable, the mothers maiden name is on the records as Stainer. I have assumed this to be correct. Although my mother told me Staines, this is written, not very well, on the back of an early photo, it is easily misconstrued as being either, but the record evidence negates Staines. The lack of name proof is evidenced by the extant uncle and my mother, neither knowing her maiden name, just hearsay, they are both very old as well.
When I found this out, I began trawling through the BMD's for a Alice Maude Staines, and only found the one in 1889. Despite the rather feeble information from my mother, I assumed this to be the one. I sent off for the cert copy and the dates are incorrect, as my grandmother, now I find out from my mother, was born in July and not in April as the copy shows...
I remained undaunted at this point, but a little tired...
It was during a telephone conversation with my mother about all the above, when I asked if she remembered anything else, and the William memory came up, she asked who was in the picture, and was told her (grandmothers) brother who drowned at sea. I then posted on here for a William John Stainer, as this name was the only William Stainer I could find on the BMD's, the rest is in earlier posts...
After the trace of a Richard William George Stainer drowning on the C11 submarine by mmm45, I put that name into the BMD's and came up trumps it would seem. On the 1891 census, I found the Stainer family, from Shaftesbury as indicated, there is a Maud Stainer, plus a William Stainer and others, but not utilizing any of their first names i.e. Alice and Richard et al. I got greedy and perused the entire history in the census returns and found seemingly thousands of Stainers, all born in and around Shaftesbury.
In the 1871 census, it shows a Frederick Stainer being 5 years of age, he is also of the same family, and a brother to the Richard who drowned. I think, and supported by a gut feeling, that he is the father of the incorrectly purchased birth certificate of the other Alice Maud Ethel Stainer in 1889, as evidenced on the cert copy.
By comparing names and offspring names in the census returns, a pretty convincing picture emerges. I know I need to prove all this, and I am buying the copy cert's as soon as possible now, it's a shame that it's so expensive, but, thats life and death....
Reading this back, it sounds such a tentative story, I do hope it makes sense, but, my paternal family tree is even worse, it is almost like I was the generation that learnt to talk first to each other....
Thanks again to you all..
reg
