For searching purposes, can I just compile the dates / places of birth for the various parties
-- 91, 01 and 11 mean they are accounted for in those censuses:
Walter Edward Reeves Q3 1863 Bath -- 91 (Waller* in 1871)
Mary Ann Mitchell (c1866 Chippenham per 1891 census) - Q4 1861 Chippenham -- 91
Alice Mabel Reeves Q3 1887 Chippenham -- 91, 01 (in Hardenhuish), 11 (Nurcombe) (married as Reaves**)
Elsie Reeves Q1 1889 Chippenham -- 91
Walter Edmund Reeves Q4 1890 Chippenham -- 91, 01, 11
Lily Reeves Q1 1892 Chippenham ?? - christened 1896 Chippenham
Daisy Lottie Reeves Q4 1894 Chippenham -- 01 (Littie*), 11
Thomas Reeves Q1 1896 Chippenham -- 01 (Tommy*)
Florence Mary Reeves Q1 1898 Chippenham -- 01 (Reecer*) (in Bradford on Avon), 11 (Florrie*)
The errors/variants shown are at *Ancestry / **FreeBMD. It is an excellent idea to make corrections, or just add middle names and the like, on records at Ancestry, and to add postems to records at FreeBMD giving an email address, so anyone who searches for them in future can find them / contact you. Speaking of which, do you know the person who has made the correction to the Nurcombes in '11?
A Walter E Reeves died in December 1955 in Maidstone, aged 64 -- a match if Walter was born later in December 1890. (But a Walter Ewart Reeves was born 1890 Croydon.)
So having done that and used the info for searching -- not much luck (but an amazing amount of time spent!).
WWI is always a possibility for the boys, but I could not match any deaths at CWGC (some death records have too little detail to match with). There is always emigration.
Alice Nurcombe born c1890 died aged 84 in Chippenham in 1874, as noted earlier.
Unfortunately, there appear to have been no births to that marriage (with mother's name either Reeves or Reaves).
... Well, checking on-line trees is always useful and how often do I wish I had done it first ...
One that I am looking at at
www.mundia.com (it mirrors all Ancestry trees and is free of charge to register, search and send messages) has Alice's marriage and also
- Lily's marriage to Edward William Latham 1935 Belfast and death 1990 Saintfield, NI
- Florence's to James Wesley Ritcey born 1893 in Nova Scotia -- it says he was resident in Joliet Illinois in 1940 and she died in 1972 ...
Here is JW Ritcy's birth
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KMLR-ZQVHere is wife Florence's alleged 1940 US census record in Joliet Illinois:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KWTM-YSDshowing her as Florence L Ritcy born 1909 in Pennsylvania and him as born in 1902 in Canada.
This would seem to be the actual marriage of the James W Ritcey born in NS, to Theredasa Harpwell in 1921 in NS:
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KMLY-WJCalthough it's hard to tell because the names James and Wesley Ritcey seem to have been quite popular in Nova Scotia.
In any event, I think we can dismiss that tree as complete nonsense.
That's why I don't look at on-line trees first.
Unless there is any truth to the info about Lily Reeves. One could always send an enquiry!
The tree also refers to son Walter Edmund as aka Edward and says he was baptised in 1896.
Do we have a batch baptism in 1896 then? In my own tree, I have wondered whether a particular batch baptism (4 children shortly after the birth of the last of them, but not including older children) was an effort to put a stamp on a paternity assertion -- that at least some of them were not in fact the husband's children. I have wondered whether something like that was happening here, in fact -- whether any of the younger children were not Walter Sr's.
Alice 1887 & Elsie 1889 were baptised as infants.
Did the parents separate shortly after the 1891 census when Walter was not yet baptised, mother Mary Ann had more children and registered them as Reeves (as the law required, and perhaps for propriety), and baptised several together in 1896?
One thing that could mean would be that Mary Ann's death, whenever it was, might well be recorded under the name of her new partner, even absent a marriage.