Yes, the marriage cert is for Stamford, but census returns for the family prior to his marriage in 1871 are in the name Stanford. Seems to be very much interchangeable, depending on who did the writing, which doesn't help when I already have so very little to go on. Both parents seem to have been illiterate. Even the death certs for the parents are different. Alfred was Stamford and Ellen was Stanford. Thought I would start with Stanford's as that was my grandfathers registered name. Also thought they might have stayed around Ampthill for a time after the wedding, before moving to Hitchin. Those two names jumped out at me from the list of births, Ellen for obvious reasons, and Alfred John as Ellen's father was John, and it seemed a good place to start.
Another piece of information is that Ellen's full birth name seems to have been Frances Ellen Mary Ann Fleming/s, of Headington Oxford, and according to census returns in 1861 she was Ellen, in 1871 was Frances. Was Frances Ellen on her marriage cert and Ellen on my grandfathers birth cert.
Alfred died in 1907, and Jack was the only child living with Ellen in 1911, so my feeling is that he was the youngest, as she would have been around 40 when he was born. That at least gives a time span to work from.
This side of the family has been a complete nightmare, as I had no idea even who my gt grandparents names were till very recently, or where they came from, and they managed to skip under the census officials noses every time! Have a good link back through the Maulden line to 1735 now and think I am on the right track at last. would be good to get this last piece of info sorted.
Very many thanks for taking an interest in this.
