Apologies in advance that I have previously posted requesting information regarded Mary Ann some time ago, but I can't seem to find the old thread.
To recap she's our ultimate mystery and I think nothing substantial came from it before. Years of searching has come up with born between 1861-1867 probably in the East End of London (but can't rule out Ireland or that she was from a traveller family as a lot of my ancestors have turned out to be)
Her father is recorded on her marriage as Peter Palmer, but we've come to the conclusion she was more likely his neice (if we're even in the right family) and her actual father was a Robert Palmer brother of Peter. Her marriage given age would make her born around 1867, but we do have births for 61-67 as I said, and other active family trees have used this whole range. There's no death listing that we can find. It's possibly significant that quite a few of her relations emigrated to Canada - I've always wondered did she just leave for another man, or another country, and the death story a more respectable cover?
She married Richard Jones in 1889 in Bow Common, East London and had 4 survivng children born in 1890(Richard) 92(Mary) 94(Annie) 96(Ettie) and a son William who died at or shortly after birth in 1898.
Richard Jones declares in the 1901 census he is a widow, and in the 1911 census that he had 6 children, 4 living. His surviving children were always told they had 2 siblings who died in infancy but again we have no record of a 6th child.
There were a lot of twins in the family, so we now wonder whether one of the children (possibly William in 1898?) had a stillborn premature twin who was never recorded.
Why I'm reposting now is going through old family documents and photos that came from Mary Ann's husband and daughter. We have found an unlabelled photograph of a lady strongly resembling Mary Ann's 3 daughters of whom we have multiple pictures, but the blouse and hair look turn of the century/early 20th century, and therefore too old to be them. It's definately not the daughter she resembles the most as she both emigrated and died young.
This is a post of wild hope and desperation - does anyone know the lady in this picture? I have no expectation that any more evidence about what happened to her will come to light, we've tried so often. But does anyone know this woman? She could be an aunt, one of Richard Jones sisters, hence the family resemblance, but most of our old family pics are labelled and she's not. The photo is clean, in good condition and looks like it's never been framed or exposed to much light.
It is so tantalising to think this COULD be our almost mythical Mary Ann Palmer (my Great Grandmother) and frustrating to think we most likely will never know for certain.
Thank you for your time in reading this, and anything anyone can add
