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I cannot find a 1901 census for James & Mary Harrison

No Allan, I mentioned on the first page that I couldn't find them.

I don't think you've answered yet as to where you got the surname of Doland for Emily's mother, or where it was she died in 1947.

Can't take it any further until you let us know.

I don't know where she died, only that she is buried in the same grave plot as her daughter Emily & son Albert in East Ardsley Wakefield West Yorkshire. I got the surname searching for the marriage of James Harrison to Mary, I did not know her surname then & probably still don't. I found reference to a James Harrison marrying a Mary Donlan on the Free BMD site.

Hello everyone, I don't know if this will help. I now have Emily Maud Harrisons' Baptism certificate. She was baptised at St. James (Church) Great Grimsby Lincolnshire on 31/07/1918, father James & mother Mary.

Hi Allan, that may be very useful. Does the baptism cert confirm her actual date of birth? (Bearing in mind she seems to have been baptised 14 years after she was born). Wonder why they waited so long to get her baptised?

Is there any other useful info on the certificate like address, godparents, etc?

The reason I wanted to know where Mary died was to try to find her death record to confirm her age at death.

I thought the same about the length of time after her birth for the baptism. Maybe something to do with the end of the war! Her birth date was confirmed as 23/07/1904. Their address was 6 Australian Place King Edward Street. There were no godparents indicated on the certificate

Marys age at death was 82 years on the headstone, she died April 1947. I can only asume she died in the Wakefield area, one because she was buried there & two because Emily lived with husband Lewis Green there.

Allan, I'm not so sure about it being the end of the war - it started 1914 so they'd had plenty time before then!

You mentioned there was uncertainty about Emily Maud's legitimacy - I'm wondering if, for whatever reason, James and Mary weren't free to marry until some time after the children were born (perhaps because one or other of them was actually still married to someone else?). Once they were free to marry they may then have decided to put things on a proper footing and get the children baptised while they were on.

Pure hypothesis, but what if Mary were married to someone else and that person died in WW1 leaving her free to marry James?

This may explain why we can't find children's birth records as they may have been registered in Mary's married name.

just on the off chance that it would help

1911 census - address transcription
Address: 6 Australian Place King Edward Street Grimsby

Name Relation Condition/ Yrs married Sex Age Birth Year Occupation Where Born

FENWICK, Ann Head Widow F 68 1843 Hirton Lincolnshire
KIRK, Mary Jane Boarder Married F 47 1864 Laceby Lincolnshire


Mrs Fenwick had been married 37 years and had 2 children, both alive in 1911

Mrs Kirk had been married 17 years, 4 children to marriage, all had sadly died

Working on the assumption that James and Mary weren't married, two possible births for Emily Maud - Eton reg district covers Slough:

Births Sep 1904 (>99%)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COX Emily Maud Eton 3a 914

Births Dec 1904
Woodham Emily Maud Eton 3a 875

Perhaps somebody with access to the 1911 can see if the above two are on there? There do not seem to be any deaths for them between 1904 and 1911.

No Woodham births for the two boys in the 1911 but there are Cox births in the right areas:

Births Sep 1902 (>99%)
Cox James Coronation Maidenhead 2c 410

Births Sep 1908 (>99%)
Cox Albert Sydney C Reading 2c 379

? Emily MAud Woodham on 1911 as Maud age 7 with her parents Frederick 32 and Lydia 32 and siblings Daisy 10, Nellie 9 and Florrie 3 @ 6 Mill Street, Slough, Bucks all born Slough
Cannot see Emily MAud Cox in that area

Thanks, Stuart.

Could you check the two Cox boys, please?

James Coronation Cox aged 8 with parents James William 31 b Maidenhead, Ellen Ann 32 b Bolter End nr Wycombe Bucks and Siblings George William 9, Violet May 7 and Albert Edward 3 all b MAidenhead. At 34 Bell St MAidenhead MArried 10 years - 4 children born alive and still living. Also there George Neighbour 61 Father in law

No Albert Sydney Cox's on the 1911 nor Alberts in the Reading area that I can see and a few too many Alberts to work through around the country in case they were born Reading

Thanks, Stuart.

Allan, St James Grimsby has a website - might be worth contacting them and asking if they have any more info on the family, eg were the other children baptised at the same time?

Thanks to everyone for helping. This is an awkward problem as I cannot be sure of Emilys lineage. I have her death certificate with her father named as James Harrison. The marriage certificate with, once again, her father named. Her baptism certificate with her parents named as James & Mary Harrison. But I cannot get her birth certificate if she has changed her name to her 'new' fathers & I don't know her original! All I know is, one time when she had her birth certificate in hand, she quickly took it out of sight, saying they got the name wrong!!!! I will add that the family grave has Albert Frederick Harrison, brother, aged 82 dying 11/01/1992. I never met James 'junior'.
Thanks Potty I will look at the st James website.

Did I say, the death certificate has Emily Maud born in Slough Berks on 23/07/1904. I don't know if this information was taken from record or accepted verbally from her daughter who registered the death.

did Albert Frederick ever marry?

have you got this death cert?

it may give us some more clues

BMD Search result details Civil Registration event: Death

Name: HARRISON, Albert Frederick
Registration District: Wakefield
County: Yorkshire
Year of Registration: 1992
Month of Registration: January
Date of Birth: 3 February 1909
Volume No: 5
Page No: 1437
Reg No: 192

Albert Frederick never married & yes that record is for one & the same AF Harrison. I do not have his death certificate, but may be able to get hold of a copy.
I have been searching for another Mary who married a James William Harrison & have found a Mary Hodgson born in Brighton around 1859. James & Mary married in Sculcoates in 1894

Hi Allan - I'm trying to track that Mary Hodgson through the census. How do you know she's the one who married in Sculcoates? The 1861 has her born Brighton but the 1871 says Dartford!

Bear in mind that if someone married at the age of 35 then they may have been married before, so it would be the previously married age on marriage record, not maiden name.

If you can't find the actual death certificate for Albert F then you can order a copy (£9.25) from GRO http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/

Tempest has provided all the info that you'd need.

I'd also strongly recommend getting a copy of Mary's death certificate, BUT I'm having trouble locating a death record that matches the info you have, i.e. Mary E Kelly dying around Wakefield in1947, age 82. (Fresh eyes see anything likely?)

If we can find her death and you get her certificate there should be useful info like her address, and the informant. That can, in turn, be useful for electoral roll searches. If we can track back to her marriage to Mr Kelly then that certificate *should* have what we're looking for in the way of previous names.

Hmm, just a thought - what if she'd never actually married and her name was Kelly all along?

That 1894 marriage:

Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
Marriages Mar 1894
>>Harrison James William Sculcoates 9d 230
Harrison William Ainsley Sculcoates 9d 230
>>Hodgson Mary Sculcoates 9d 230
Mason Ellen Lee Sculcoates 9d 230

The 1911 does confirm that William Ainsley Harrison married Ellen Lee Mason.

Have you found James William & Mary in the 1911?