Maureen - you don't owe me a certificate. I've got the marriage cert now of Mary Elizabeth Cook aged 46 a widow of 6 Gardiners Buldings, Walker Street, Hull, father Thomas Bolton (Boulton) Benson, deceased, fisherman, married on 26 December 1933 at the Register Office, Hull to John Smith aged 40 years a bachelor of 23 Paradise Place, Commercial Road, Hull, a fisherman, his father was also called John Smith (and deceased) so Mary has gone full circle and eventually married a fisherman like her father!
I still don't know why she would give the wrong date of birth on the 1939 register. Even stating she was 46 at the time of her marriage is wrong. Her birthdate is 2 June 1888, so by December 1933 she would only have been 45 and as her husband was younger than her, why on earth would she add a year to her age?
I can't find her or her husband on the 1939 register, but if he was a fisherman it's possible he was at sea. I have found a WW2 civilian death in 1942 of a John Smith of Hull aged 50, but it states son of the late John and Annie Smith. No mention of Mary Elizabeth. I wonder if they had already separated, a 3 times married woman aged 46 marrying a 40 year old bachelor doesn't seem a good fit. I also looked for deaths at sea, but I couldn't see one for a John Smith, husband of Mary E Smith, or even a John Smith from Hull. Looking on the normal deaths, there are 2 other John Smiths of the correct age, also dying in 1942. So who knows?
So is one of the deaths in 1956 and 1965 Mary E Smith? There's one in 1972 but by then dates of birth were included, so I can discount that one. I guess I could order both death certs but I can't think what criteria to ask them to look for, widow - might apply to both, or maybe even wife of John Smith.
