Here's a mystery which may benefit from a fresh pair of eyes.
One of my in-laws relatives recently came across this newspaper account of the wedding of her great-aunt, Sophia Louise Madgwick (1878-1950), to George Toynton in 1907. Apparently, the "Wellington Times" was only added to Trove recently.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/141591291The curious and novel feature of this story, is the mention that the only bridesmaid was Miss Elsie Nichols, niece of the bride. The identity of this Elsie is a mystery.
This Sophia Madgwick had one brother, who was married in 1906 and whose oldest son was born in 1907. Sophia also had 9 much older half-siblings by the name of Nicholls or Nichols, the offspring of her mother's first marriage. Obviously, this alleged niece would seem to be one of their children. But whose ?
Only one of Sophia Madgwick's Nichols ( or Nicholls ) half-siblings was a male - William Nicholls (1854-1934). According to Sophia (Madgwick) Toynton's daughter, who passed away a few years ago, she knew this old chap, when she was a child, he was not married and had no children that she knew of.
The other 8 of Sophia Madgwick's Nichols half-sisters were females. Apart from one who died aged 6, the others had a whole bunch of children. The catch is, there doesn't seem to be any Elsie among them, and they all seem to have had their husband's surnames. There doesn't seem to be any obvious reason why any of Sophia's identifiable nieces would have been called "Miss Elsie Nichols".
Any suggestions on how to identify a mystery niece bridesmaid ?
My in-laws' screed on this family runs to about 97 pages, I haven't retyped all of it here, happy to provide any further details that are already known.
Sophia's half-sisters were:
Catherine (1851? 1937) married Dougherty, 13 children.
Elizabeth (1856-1931) married New, 5 children
Ellen (1861?-?) married Brown, 9 children. When this lady died, is another mystery.
Mary(1864-??) married New and then McLeod. 2 children.
Margaret(1866-1905) married McLeod, 8 children
Flora(1868-1952) married Clifton, probably 2 children.
My relative says she has looked for any subsequent marriage or demise for this 'Miss Elsie Nichols" and could not find any.
Any suggestions on how to identify a mystery niece bridesmaid ?