This evening I have been entering details of the above couple and their family. On the Yorkshire Ancestry family tree there is an associated memorial inscription for Fred and Flora Fox which also includes George Sefton and Sarah Elizabeth Sefton. In addition, our marriage database records the marriage of George Sefton to Sarah Elizabeth Fox on 7th April 1928 at Christ Church, Knottingley.

Our transcript of the marriage register records that George, of Cow Lane, Knottingley, was a Bachelor of 23 years working as a Carter and the son of Tom Sefton. His bride, Sarah Elizabeth, of Sebastopol, Knottingley, was a Spinster of 22 years and the daughter of Fred Fox. It appeared therefore that Sarah Elizabeth was the daughter of Fred and Flora Fox and that all four individuals mentioned were interred in the same grave (plot no. 4249) within Knottingley Cemetery.

From the information available it was determined that Sarah Elizabeth was born about 1906 but there was no record of baptism at Knottingley. Turning to the 1911 census I could locate just one Sarah Elizabeth Fox that seemed a likely possibility but even though her year of birth was given as 1906 and the family were recorded living at Sebastopol, Knottingley, her parents were somewhat confusingly recorded as George Arthur Fox and his wife Hannah. I initially discarded that possibility but having been unable to locate any other Fred and Flora Fox or a Sarah Elizabeth Fox, I returned to it once again.

In the 1911 census, George Arthur Fox was recorded as being born in Dodsworth, Barnsley, while both Hannah, his wife of 13 years, and daughter Sarah Elizabeth were recorded as being born in Wortley, Leeds.

Turning to the 1901 census I located a Fred Fox and his wife Flora Fox at 242 Low Wortley Road, Wortley, the home of a widower by the name of Robert Wade. Fred Fox was recorded as ‘son-in-law’ so Robert Wade was clearly the father of Flora Fox. I discovered a marriage recorded at Leeds in the September qtr of 1898 between Fred Fox and Flora Wade, so was this the couple I had been searching for?

The 1901 census records that Fred Fox was born in Dodsworth, Barnsley, and that Flora Fox was born in Wortley, Leeds, so the birthplaces correspond with the information recorded on the 1911 census. The home address for the 1911 census was given as Sebastopol, Knottingley, which corresponds to the address recorded for Sarah Elizabeth at the time of her marriage in 1928. It would seem extremely likely that the Sarah Elizabeth recorded at Sebastopol in the 1911 census with parents George Arthur and Hannah is the same Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Fred, who later married George Sefton but if that is indeed the case then why are the given names of her parents recorded differently on the 1911 census?

Why would Fred be changed to George Arthur at the same time that Flora is changed to Hannah? Can anyone provide any insight?

I’m sure you’ve all encountered a situation where you search through census records and locate one member of a marriage but find that their partner wasn’t present at the time. Had their partner died? Had they divorced? or had they simply gone their separate ways? It’s not always easy to find the answer and more often than not the information tendered at the time was meant to confuse and mislead. I came across one such situation yesterday when I attempted to piece together the family history behind a Knottingley cemetery memorial inscription.

The memorial inscription in question reads:

TREASURED MEMORIES OF
ALBERT EDWARD RAYNER DIED APRIL 6TH 1938 AGED 75 YEARS
ALSO OF HARRIET ALICE RAYNER DIED OCTOBER 1ST 1938 AGED 82 YEARS

I normally begin my search by locating a record of marriage from an approximate date determined by the ages of the individuals concerned however, on this occasion I was unable to locate one. Instead I turned to the census and in 1911 I found Albert Edward Rayner, a Bachelor, living at Victoria Terrace, Hill Top, Knottingley, and employed as a Miners Deputy. Recorded with him on the same census was Harriet Alice Hoyles, a Housekeeper, along with 3 other individuals with the Hoyles surname that suggested they were her children or descendants. Harriet Alice was recorded as ‘Married’ but there was no record of her husband.

I first located Harriet Alice Hoyles at Hunslet, Yorkshire, on the 1891 census where she was recorded with her husband Abraham and their family but at the time of writing I have been unable to locate a marriage for them. There is the possibility of course that they didn’t ever marry but subsequent findings leads me to believe that not to be the case and that at some point early in their relationship the couple did become husband and wife.

The 1901 census at Pontefract Road, Knottingley, records 42 year-old Harriet as a Widow and Head of the household along with 4 of her children and a newly born grandson. In addition there is a record of a Lodger by the name of Albert Rayner, aged 39 years, who was employed as a Coal Ripper. As we already know, Albert Edward Rayner was interred in the same grave as Harriet where they are recorded as husband and wife.

The recording of Harriet as a Widow in 1901 was again confusing because there was no record of a death registration for her husband between 1891, when Abraham was recorded at the family home, and 1901 at which time Harriet was recorded as a Widow. By chance I stumbled across a census record from 1901 which recorded Harriet’s husband Abraham, in Kippax, Yorkshire, as a Lodger at the home of Henry Townley Blakeley, and employed as a Coal Miner. Clearly the couple had gone their separate ways but were they ever married? I believe they most certainly were and with the information I had uncovered so far I expanded my search into later years.

The GRO records that Albert Edward Rayner married Harriet Alice Hoyles at Pontefract, Yorkshire, in the 4th quarter of 1915, but having been first recorded together back in 1901, why had they waited so long to marry? There is the possibility that love didn’t blossom initially and that it wasn’t until some time later that they made the decision to become husband and wife, but it’s more likely the fact that at Hunslet, Yorkshire, in the first quarter of 1915, there was a registered death of Abraham Hoyles, aged 59 years. That suggests to me that Harriet and Abraham were indeed married and that through the death of Abraham in early 1915, Harriet was finally free to marry Albert Edward Rayner.