Parish register marriage entry but no GRO index entry

[mezentia]

Gwynne

Thanks for your help, it's really appreciated. I'm not sure quite what the crossed out entries mean, except that the marriage probably didn't take place. That tends to confirm the 1871 census entry where Martha is still listed as single. I think I need to go back and check the 1861 and 1871 censuses to see if I can find Mr Edwards (and possibly, spouse), and possibly a death. As Martha is listed as a spinster of this parish, I'm assuming that on her return from New Zealand she went back to Chelmarsh where she had relatives, and presumably, she must have been there for a while to be listed "of this parish". I need to check which relatives they might have been.  Out of interest, do you know where the post 1846 marriage registers are kept?

John

Thanks for the information on the batch numbers.  It's interesting to note that the original "M" batches for Chelmarsh completely missed out Richard Stonyer's marriage. His children seemed to think he married in Henley, and it took me ages to rule out any Henley in England, or indeed, any similar sounding name. It was only another volunteer who visited the archives who found the entry for me in the Chelmarsh PR!

I think I'm now quite confident that this Martha Stonyer is the one that originally emigrated to New Zealand with her brother, but who subsequently returned to England. So I'm left with questions:

Would Martha have appeared on a passenger list on her return from NZ, and

Where did she get to after 1871?

[mezentia]

Just a quick update - Martha eventually emigrated to Canada! She married one Abraham Sackett in Ontario on 10 Dec 1891. Sadly, they didn't have any children. I've since been in touch with one of Abraham's descendents and he tells me:

This lady had quite a life.  However, her final days were probably not so good;  she died on the 4 Jun 1930 in the Ontario Hospital  in Whitby, Ontario from "severe changes" which would leave one to believe senility.  She was buried in Greenside Cemetery, Whitby, Ontario on 7 June 1930 at age 85 years, 9 months and 10 days.   

She appears on the 1921 Canada census with an immigration year of 1889, which implies she ought to be found on the England 1881 census, but so far no luck. Could she have possibly travelled elsewhere?

In the meantine, her brother Joseph can't be found on any register after arriving in New Zealand, and he's the last remaining of Richard Stonyer's children that I can't trace fully. Could he possibly have returned with Martha to England but died on the journey back? It seems easy enough to trace folks going out to Australia NZ, but impossible to trace returnees