This is my first time on here, so hope I'm asking this in the correct format and the right place
I can't find the marriage(s) of Lydia Reeman b1856 Long Melford. She had a son Albert George Adams in 1877 (Sudbury). The father on the birth certificate is George Adams, bricklayer.
On the 1881 census she's Lydia Adams, widow, working as Child's nurse in Essex, while her son is living with her parents Alfred and Emily Reeman in Melford.
I can't find a Reeman-Adams marriage.
In 1887 she had the 1st of her 8 children with Edward Turkentine b1864 Great Cornard. The 1911 census says they've been married 22 years (ie 1889).
I can't find a Reeman-Turkentine marriage.
The only Adams-Turkentine marriage is 1901 in St Olave Southwark (which is close to where Lydia and Edward were then living, but not the 22 years they claimed in 1911 - although I realise they could have lied for appearance's sake because they'd had 7 children by then)
My questions are:
a) If there is no GRO marriage record for Reeman-Adams, does that mean they didn't actually get married? Is there any chance they did get married but it's not on the GRO? I've tried phonetic and wide year span searching.
b) If she was just using the name Adams (and label 'widow') for the sake of appearances, without actually being married, could she have got married to Edward Turkentine in the name of Adams in 1901? I don't know if it was necessary to show proof of name when getting married.
c) The 1901 marriage certificate will either say widow or spinster. If it's 'widow', will it also give her maiden name? I don't want to buy it if it just says widow and doesn't confirm that it is her!
Thanks for any help anyone can give.
