I have tried to hunt down various male members of the Betsy & William family in future censuses, to no avail. The nearest I came was the 1861 census record which lists the son James as a hatter and his mother Elizabeth as head of household: "England and Wales Census, 1861," database with images, FamilySearch (
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2ML-1FXD : 19 October 2017), James Cock in household of Elizabeth Cock, Bermondsey, London, Surrey, England; from "1861 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (
http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 9, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey.
- but the ages are slightly out, so I don't know. They say born in "...Cornwall". Can anyone see the record to
Yes, I think that you're right, Ladyhawk - being able to see father's occupation on the marriage certificate should be the definitive proof. What I cannot find is exactly how to order a marriage certificate. The GRO site only seems to offer options for birth and death, although the UK gov sites point to it as the issuer of marriage certificates. I have just emailed them with a query. Various paid services offer access to records (e.g. one called Archive - sign up free for 7 days) - but I'm not sure that they show the actual certificates anyway.
Any other ideas?
In the meantime I will carry on with Albert's profile and see if I can add anything that's not already there. Is there any way of getting a full service record other than from the army? It costs £30 to do it there, which is a little steep... (And they want to be paid by cheque, which probably incurs another £10+ equivalent from Australia!)