Stuck...parish records and missing father

[littlemisssleepy]

That is amazing help. Thank you so much Annette!

I did find the marriage of Hannah to John and the later deaths.
If she did have a birth year of 1854 then having 3 children in the 1890s must have been unlikely!?

[Ayashi]

I'd say upper end of fertility for many was 45-50. When I make a date of birth estimate for a woman I plot 35-45 years from date of last child as one measure of age. Any woman having babies consistently (every 1-2 years) at that age I'd start to consider suspicious mind you. Certainly regular children above 50 would be a sign of something unusual. I'd be more confused about a late apparent first marriage in her case. If I had a woman marrying in her late 30s I'd be looking for a previous marriage. An age of 25 would have been far more typical.

Cases like this make me think about all the mariners who fell overboard, or all the entries in parish registers for "man found in ditch" "body found in river" etc. Thomas could well have gone out one day and never come home, buried in an unnamed grave. One of mine got married to a man I began to worry was fictional (after three supposedly legitimate children and one prior illegitimate) until I eventually found him living with his sister a county over. The 1911 census claimed his years married and three children but 'married' was crossed out and another handwriting 'widower'.

[littlemisssleepy]

Thank you Ayashi. I shall have another look and see if I can find anything that suggests there was an earlier marriage. Or it could be, as suggested in another reply, the age at death may have been incorrect.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do now as it looks like the Kemp name is only passed on by way of marriage and as it seems unlikely Thomas is not the father there is no further Kemp to trace back. 

[iluleah]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what to do now as it looks like the Kemp name is only passed on by way of marriage and as it seems unlikely Thomas is not the father there is no further Kemp to trace back. 

As previously said there are many 'Kemps' just down the road from where you are looking at PRs, so maybe look again at Thomas for his baptism and occupation which may lead to other potential leads  although if you can't prove he is the father then accept the male line has come to an end  as ALL lines do once there are no records to research or the records you research don't prove the required connection