I'm looking for the parents of Maria Moscow, born 1855 in Ashton-Under-Lyne. I can't locate a birth record or a census find prior to her marriage to Wright Platt. I'm currently waiting for the marriage certificate. Other trees seem to think she is sister to John, William and Ellen Moscoe/Moscow, who can be found living with their widowed mother in 1871, though Maria is not living with them. Moreover, the birth index of John, William, and Ellen are also not to be found, nor is any earlier census record than 1871. Adding to this, there seems to be no death or remarriage record for their mother, or any record of the death (or birth) of William Moscoe/Moscow, the father stated on several of the siblings' marriage certificates, nor of any marriage between a William Moscoe/Moscow and a Margaret (the sibling's mother).
Margaret, the mother, was Irish, so it's possible that William was too, though the name Moscoe or Moscow is more or less unrecorded in Ireland, and is rare enough in England. There's a spattering of Moscoes in the Lancashire records, but finds are patchy and don't show much sign of a continuous lineage in the area (or anywhere else). Most Moscow families are descendants of recent Jewish immigrants and only appeared in Britain several decades after Maria's birth. There's minimal evidence of Moscows before that time, and when it occurs it seems to be a variation of Moscoe.
I've considered the possibility that all siblings were born out of wedlock and that William Muscoe/Moscow was an invention, which I've seen happen before, but Margaret does claim to be widowed in 1871, and I've not seen lies on a census before. Possibly the Muscoe/Moscow surname was invented after the birth of all children, hence no birth records. But that wouldn't explain the lack of death records for the mother (or father). It also doesn't help me find the family in 1861, since I've searched for the family using only birth dates and birth places, with the surname omitted. Also, I've checked all births in the stated years for each sibling, and none seem to be mistranscriptions of anything close to Muscoe or Moscow.
Any help would be appreciated.
