William Hill Elizabeth May marriage 1871-1874?

[aysgarth]

 I have a missing marriage that is blocking me from a certain line of inquiry.  Willaim Hill and Elizabeth May - must have married sometime between April 1871 (when William is shown as single in the census) and July 1873 when thier daughter was born (registered by her mother).  I cannot find any reference to a marriage in the GRO indexes and wondered if this may be because the family was non-denominatinal (baptist).

The data points I have are:

William Hill, born in Swansea 1843 to David Hill and Ameila Edy.  In 1871 census - single, living in London (St Pancras) close to his uncle and brother.  Not shown in 1881 census

Elizabeth May - only identified on daughter Mary's birth certificate as "Elizabeth Hill formally May".  Not shown in 1881 census

Mary Elizabeth Hill - daughter, born 12 July 1873, Severn Rd, Canton, Cardiff.  shown in 1881 census liviing with her aunt Sarah Hurley (nee Hill) in Penarth.

Elizabeth may have come from London and married William there but she may also have been a local girl.  I realy need to find her marriage record in order to track her origins.

any ideas?

Helen

[osprey]

if they married in a Baptist or other non-conformist church, the marriage would still show up in the GRO index. Is it possible that Elizabeth had been married before so wasn't May in the index? Do you have her or William on a census after 1871?

[Bryn Celyn]

There are a couple of other possible scenarios:

1.  They never married.  My gt gt grandparents fall into that category.  My aunt searched all the indexes manually looking for the marriage.  In their case they were banned from marriage because of the Church's table of affinities.  She was the (young) widow and 2nd wife of his uncle!

2.  Her name is incorrectly recorded on her daughter's birth certificate.  On the other side of my family my gt grandmother is listed as "Eliza" and "Elizabeth" on different certificates, and on the 2nd of her children's birth certificates she is listed as "formerly Jones", when in fact she was "formerly Evans"!

I am sure that there are other scenarios as well.  None of which of course knock down the brick wall.  Have you tried going further forward i.e. trying to find any of them in censuses after 1881?

[Morganllan]

Hello 

What was William's occupation on his daughter's birth certificate?

Kind regards
Morgan

[aysgarth]

the ubiquitous 'Labourer'
When he was in London he is shown as a Linen Draper