We have just published the 1881 Scottish census on findmypast.co.uk

The census recorded the population of Scotland at over 3.7 million in 1881 and we’ve freshly transcribed these records to ensure your ancestors’ details are accurately recorded.

We’ve already published the 1841-1871 Scottish censuses on findmypast.co.uk. You’ll be keen to search the 1881 Scottish census for the ancestors you’ve traced in the previous censuses. If you haven’t been able to find your ancestors in the earlier Scottish censuses, now’s the time to search the 1881 census to see if they make an appearance.

Our high quality transcriptions make it easy to discover the crucial details about your ancestors’ lives. It is not possible to view the original census images on findmypast.co.uk, due to the General Register Office for Scotland’s licensing regulations.

We will publish future Scottish census on the site in the coming weeks.

Search the 1881 Scottish census now

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Daniel Martin:

‘My great-grandmother’s name was Mary Ann Bell, who I can trace as marrying in Hammersmith in 1872. I cannot find her or her family (one known son from 1872) in the 1881 census but she appears again in 1891 with two children born in 1884 and 1886.

There are no family stories of overseas travel and I further note that while my grandfather father is given as Samuel Bell (1886), she appears to have been living with George Arrow from either 1882 or 1883. My question is: what tricks might I use to further seek information on my great-grandmother during the 1880s?’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for your question. I think the root of the problem lies in the estrangement of Mary Ann from her husband Samuel Bell and later cohabitation with George Arrow. This leaves Mary Ann with a ‘married but separated’ status in 1881, which often makes an individual hard to find in a census. I believe, however, that I may have found her in 1881.

From background enquiries, I saw that Mary Ann was born nee Norman in 1853 in Ipswich and married Samuel Bell, as you say, in 1872 in the London registration district of Kensington, which at that date included Hammersmith. Using this information and considering variables, I located a Marian Bell, aged 26 and born in Ipswich, residing at 2 Cambridge Place in Kensington.

What is interesting is that she is described as being married but is not co-resident with a husband or children. She is recorded as a domestic servant, which agrees with the description of her as a general servant in the 1871 census. In the circumstances, although I cannot be certain, I believe that this is probably your ancestor.

To retrieve this record, go to our census reference search, select the 1881 census from the dropdown list of census years, and then search using piece 22, folio 117 and page 6.

If this is indeed the correct record, it raises the question of what has happened to her husband and to the child you mention who was born in 1872.

If the husband had died, I think it is more likely that Mary Ann would have married Mr Arrow later in life, which I infer from your email she did not. It is likely, therefore, that he is residing elsewhere in London, and perhaps you can locate him with the background information you have not included in your emailed question. Don’t eliminate any candidates simply because they appear to be married to another woman in 1881 – cohabitation was often recorded as ‘married’ and, of course, bigamy was not unknown.

Assuming that their son born in 1872 did not die in infancy or early childhood, he may have been a) living with his father, b) living with his paternal or maternal grandparents, c) living with other kin on his mother’s or his father’s side, or d) in care of a foster parent or an institution. You may need to consider each of these options for the 1881 census, by which I mean proceeding upon the basis that the father Samuel Bell and the son born in 1872 may well be living separately from one another, but I expect that father and son are in the English 1881 census somewhere. I hope this helps.’

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Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Ray Norval in Brisbane, Queensland:

‘Can you help me? I am searching for any information as to the ancestry of my maternal grandmother Nellie Buckley Formiston. We think she was born in 1880, birthplace unknown, but lived in West Hartlepool. Family legend has it that she came from a seafaring family and that her father was a ship’s master and died at sea. She spoke of a brother Geordie. In the census we found a George Formiston who was born about 1875, was a seaman and died in the Throston Road Workhouse in 1902.

We can find no record of Nellie leaving England but we know she married John Frederick Towers in St Mary’s Church Woodstock Capetown in March 1905. The record of marriage does not contain any reference to parents of either party. Her husband emigrated to Queensland in 1889 with his parents and enlisted with the Queensland Imperial Bushmen to fight in the Boer War.

He returned to Australia with his contingent in 1902, presumably going back to South Africa in 1905 to marry Nellie. They returned to Australia where the first of their four daughters was born near Ipswich in 1906. Nellie died in Brisbane in 1956, her early life a mystery to her family. Her husband died in a gold mining accident in 1937 - Nellie never remarried. Any tips or clues would be gratefully received.’

Stephen says:

‘Thanks for your intriguing question.

The first thought that struck me was that I had never heard of the last name Formiston before and that it might be a variant of another name. After a little research, it is clear that it certainly exists in its own right (very locally, in Cheshire, for example) but I believe that the original version of the name for this particular family was Formstone. On the 1881 census there is a family named Formstone including children David (aged 7, born Fleetwood, Lancashire), George (aged 5, born Rock Ferry, Cheshire), Ellen (aged 4, born Birkenhead, Cheshire) and Rosette (aged 1, also born Birkenhead). If I am right, Ellen will be your Nellie.

They are residing at Back Cottage in Church Street, Thornton, in the Fylde, Lancashire. The census reference is RG11 piece 4255 folio 128 page 8 (use this reference to go straight to the right page on findmypast.co.uk’s census reference search. I also noticed that there was a Rose Formiston on the 1901 and 1911 censuses in Hartlepool who was born circa 1879/80 and who, therefore, matches the 1881 Rosette (even though she claims later to have been born in Kilburn or Paddington, London – this may suggest that the family moved to London when Rose was a child).

One tip for searching the censuses is to progressively subtract letters from the end of the last name and use an asterisk (*) for a trailing wildcard search. In other words, if you get no relevant results with an expected spelling, such as Formiston in this instance, start by removing one or more letters from the end of the name, using your judgement as to what might have been either different in the original spelling or, for that matter, misspelt by the census enumerator or mis-transcribed during the process of digitisation. Each time you remove one or more letters, you will multiply the search results returned to you. Searching under Form* will, therefore, bring back all results for last names beginning with these letters, including those relevant to this case (you might also wish to consider replacing the first vowel, i.e., names beginning Farm- rather than the expected Form-).

In any event, the mother of this family is Margaret Formstone, a 25-year old widow and charwoman, a British subject born in “Hindustan” (i.e., British India). If she was the mother of David, then the 1881 census suggests that she had her eldest child when she was little more than 18 years of age. I searched on the Lancashire Online Parish Clerk website and found two references to the family: 21-year old mariner Henry Formstone (son of Richard) married 19-year old Margaret Craig (daughter of John) on 11 February 1873 in Fleetwood and their son David was born and baptised there three months later, on 9 May 1873.

Hopefully, with this information, you can resume the search for your ancestors.

Incidentally, I can let you in to a secret. Our plans for imminent new record set releases include two different types of records of merchant marines, plus a significant collection of records for the county of Cheshire. Both of these may well contain records of value to your Formiston/Formstone family history research. They should all be online within the next three months. Good luck with your research!’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

This month we also have an expert answer to the question of a disappearing relative from the 1881 census. Michael Sheppard asks:

“My grandfather was Sylvester Sheppard born 27 April 1857 in Ubley, Somerset. He enlisted in the Grenadier Guards in 1877 Service No.5924.stationed at Horse Guards until 1883 and transferred to the Reserve until 1889. I cannot find him on the 1881 census.

Do you have any idea on how to find this record? Would the army have had their own record of this census?

Stephen replies:

“Thanks for your question about Sylvester Sheppard. I’ve chosen it as I believe the answer may be of value to other researchers, even though the short answer is “No”.

Firstly, it’s worth summarising the situation with regard to each of the decennial censuses for England and Wales for 1841 to 1911 which are available, fully name-searchable, on findmypast.

1841 – no separate census returns for any of the armed forces
1851 – no separate census returns for any of the armed forces
1861 – separate census returns for Royal Navy At Sea (and also for British Ships In Port and Ships At Sea)
1871 – separate census returns for Royal Navy At Sea
1881 – separate census returns for Royal Navy At Sea
1891 – no separate census returns for any of the armed forces
1901 – separate census returns for Royal Navy At Sea
1911 – separate census returns for Overseas Military and Royal Navy At Sea

Although any individuals serving in the armed forces stationed within England and Wales (or Channel Islands or Isle of Man) should be enumerated at their barracks or garrison in all of the above, you will quickly see that there is tremendous scope for our ancestors to be “missing” from a census return due to service abroad (including, for that matter, Scotland or Ireland). This is particularly true for 1901, as that census, which was carried out on 31st March that year, took place during the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) – it is not unusual to see wives and children enumerated at home with a remark that the head of household is on overseas service.

One of these holes has been largely filled by the recent publication of the 1861 Worldwide Army Index on findmypast this month. This covers approximately 245,000 British (and of course Irish) soldiers who were stationed overseas in census year. As the 1861 census already covers the Royal Navy and at least a proportion of the merchant navy, the publication of the 1861 Worldwide Army Index goes some way towards completing the coverage of the population in 1861. To search this dataset, go to http://www.findmypast.co.uk/search/military/indexes/1861-army-index.

Unfortunately, Michael, to return to your original question, if you cannot find your Guards ancestor in the 1881 census of England & Wales (and have also searched unsuccessfully the Scottish 1881 census on Scotland’s bonny People) normally this would imply that he was serving overseas and the censuses will remain forever silent as to his whereabouts. There was no separate “army census” of the type to which you allude. However, his “Chelsea Pensioner” army service record suggests that he was in fact “at home” from 1877 to 1889 inclusive. I would expect “at home” at that date to include Scotland and Ireland, so it may well be that Sylvester was elsewhere within the British Isles rather than in truly foreign parts.

Incidentally, another notable gap in the coverage of census-taking was the merchant navy and the small fishing fleets and solitary vessels which were offshore or at sea on census night. While sometimes these men and boys were recorded as if they were at home on census night, or included in returns of boats in harbours, they are too often missing from censuses (the 1861 census again being the only prominent exception to this rule).”

If you would like to have the chance to Ask the Expert, please email your query to casestudies@findmypast.co.uk

Please note that our experts cannot enter into personal correspondence and only a limited selection of queries will be answered per month. We try to select questions which reflect the most common enquiries.

Our resident expert Stephen Rigden, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Marilyn Ellis from Aberdeenshire:

‘For the last 40 years, I and my aunt before me have been trying to trace details of the life of my great grandfather. The elusive William Basterfield was supposedly born in Stourbridge Workhouse around 1858, the illegitimate son of Elizabeth ? Basterfield and a shoemaker by the name of Adrian Mountfield.

I cannot trace my Basterfield line because I cannot find my great great grandmother. All I know for certain is that her last name was Basterfield. I have researched every William Basterfield born from about 1855 onwards but I’ve had no luck finding his birth record.

The records for Stourbridge Workhouse for this period are missing. There are no entries on the 1861 census and a possible entry on the 1871 census showing him living alone in Halesowen and his profession as ‘shoemaker’.

My first real evidence of William is a marriage certificate dated 1880, which gives details of his marriage to my great grandmother Elizabeth Faulkner.

The strange thing is that his name is stated as William Mountfield, profession shoemaker, son of Aid Mountfield. By the following year, however, he is shown on the 1881 census as William Basterfield. He appears again on the 1891 census but that’s the last census entry for him.

My grandfather Joseph Arthur Basterfield was born in 1895, the seventh child of the marriage. By 1900, however, my great grandmother was living with a Stephen Price by whom she had two further children. The story in the family was that she had thrown William out of the house because of his hard drinking and he had gone to live in Worcester.

There is no record of him, however, after his name appears on my grandfather’s birth certificate in 1895. I have searched every available record but I can’t find anything! I am not sure when my great grandmother’s relationship started with Stephen Price but she never married him. His name does appear, however, on my great aunt and uncle’s birth certificates.

The unusual thing is that although I cannot trace my maternal great great grandmother or her son William, I have been able to trace the life of Adrian Mountfield. It seems that Adrian lived life to the full, drinking and womanising, never marrying and he finally died in Sedgley Workhouse in 1885. I have even traced the Mountfield line back to the 18th century.

My father is now 91 and it would be great if I could tell him what happened to his grandfather, a man whose name was never mentioned in the family.’

Stephen says:

‘I do not think this problem can be easily solved, but I would like to give a few thoughts and suggestions, just in case you have not already considered them, and just in case they might assist other family historians confronting similar problems in their own research.

Firstly, you do not identify in your email the source of the information that William’s mother was Elizabeth, so I am assuming this has come down to you as family legend. Assuming for now that the mother did bear this name and proceeding upon the basis that her child was born illegitimately, we need to consider the three possible scenarios:

1. The mother was a spinster
2. The mother was a married woman, perhaps but not necessarily separated from her husband
3. The mother was a widow

These scenarios give very different potential profiles for Elizabeth. She may have been, say, a 15 year old girl living at home with her parents, or she may have been a mature 45 year old with a number of children by her late husband and now having a final child out of wedlock, or she could have been somewhere on the spectrum of age and experience between these two points.

Note that age and experience do not necessarily tie up simplistically. It is quite possible to play with these ages and come up with Elizabeth either as a young widow of 21 or as a spinster in her 40s at the time of birth of her child.

Now let us assume that the son William was indeed born in 1858. If so, our imaginary scenarios give a possible year of birth for Elizabeth ranging from 1813 (if aged 45 years at his birth) to 1843 (if aged 15 years at his birth). We would wish to extend this by a year or two on either side, not least because the year of birth of William is unproven.

I looked up the death of the putative father Adrian Mountfield and see that he was aged 55 at his death in March 1885, suggesting that he was born circa 1829/30. If so, he would have been aged 28 or 29 years when William was born in 1858.

A typical male/female relationship of that time would be where the parties were of similar age or the man being up to maybe eight years older. Of course we are dealing with degrees of probability only, but this would place Elizabeth’s birth most likely within the period 1828 to 1838, which would make her aged 20 to 30 at the birth of William.

Do not get carried away with trying to pin down anything more exact, as this will not be possible. I am trying only to outline the various possibilities and permutations, as it is important to consider them all as theoretical possibilities and then to decide what lines of enquiry are appropriate to examine each of these. In practical terms, this means looking for the mother in, for example, the 1861 census not just as a spinster, but also as a married woman with husband and children, or as a widow with children.

Actuality may also be disguised in the records available to us. For example, were Elizabeth a 15 year old girl living at home when she had her baby in 1858, in the 1861 census her by then three year old child might be shown as if he were the son not of Elizabeth but of Elizabeth’s parents (his own maternal grandparents). This is a quite common occurrence: when their ages do not make it too improbable, i.e., the grandmother under aged 50 at the time, the grandparents bring up their unmarried daughter’s illegitimate child as one of their own.

Such a child can conceivably pass through life believing he is his grandparents’ child and, therefore, perpetuating this misapprehension on his subsequent marriage certificate and other official documents.

I appreciate that everything I have written complicates rather than simplifies, but that is the multiplicity of human experience and most researchers will need to grapple will these issues at one point or another - as I am sure you have done already when pondering the way forward on your research.

If this is a problem that you really need and want to crack, you will need to identify every possible candidate for the mother Elizabeth, using census returns, civil and parish registers, and then descend their line to positively eliminate them or leave them in contention. Ultimately, the careful and painstaking process of elimination may be the only way forward.

My other advice would be to include the usual variants in everything you do. Think of the various spellings and misspellings of Basterfield, such as Bastefield or even Baskerfield. Be generous in your expectations of the accuracy of recorded ages in the censuses and on certificates.

It is common to track a single individual through four, five or more consecutive census returns and find that his or her age goes up or down by irregular amounts between censuses - in the 10 years between the 1851 and 1861 census a person may be shown as aging an impossible 12 years, only to then age by a mere 7 years in the decade to the next census.

When William was a shoemaker’s assistant in the Chatwin household at the time of the 1871 census, his recorded age of 16 years (which gives a year of birth circa 1854/55) may not have been accurate.

Finally, remember that the Stourbridge Union was an administrative district as well as shorthand for the poorhouse or workhouse. I know you believe that the child may have been born in the Workhouse and this may well have been the fact of the matter, but I mention the other meaning of union just in case.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Our military expert Paul Nixon, pictured below, answers your queries.

From Gillian Edgell in Norfolk:

‘Ref: Edwin John Mandeville, born 13 March 1857 at 101 Kent Street (now Tabard Street) Southwark. Parents Hannah and Alfred Mandeville.

I’m wondering if you can help me find or give advice on where I can find any further information on whereabouts of my great great uncle, Edwin John Mandeville, after he left the army in 1895.

On the 1881 census he is listed under the name of Edwin J Manderville , visitor, and his occupation was carpenter. His address was 53 Royal Navy, Salmons Lane, Limehouse. He was staying with his sister, my great grandmother Amelia, and family. I have been searching for years now, trying to find out what happened to him next, but I couldn’t find any further record of him.

You can imagine how thrilled I was when I recently searched for his name in the Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 and I found a match straight away:

Edwin John Mandeville, age of attestation: 24 years 7 months (I don’t know why he lied about his age, unless you needed to be under 25 to join?)

The attestation date was 3 March 1883, attestation corps: South Lancashire Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Volunteers), attestation soldier number: 873.

I have looked at the original records - there are nine images. He was discharged after 12 years of service; he was found unfit for further service and his next of kin was given as his older sister Hannah Turner, 25 Arthur Street, Oxford Street, London.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find any further record of him again. I have looked everywhere and found nothing.

I would be very grateful for any input you can give me. Is there, for example, any way of finding out the address where his pension was sent to or when it was stopped paying out? Is there any reason why he would have joint a Northern Regiment, when he lived in London? Any help would be appreciated just so I can finally finish my family tree.’

Paul says:

‘Unfortunately there are no details of the pension award that survive in his papers, but it would have been sent to whatever address he gave to the Pension Board. He was probably awarded a conditional pension of £X in respect of a degree of disablement which was either attributable to, or aggravated by, army service.

This degree of disablement would have been expressed as a percentage, e.g., 20% degree of disablement etc. In all probability, after his first pension award, he would have been called before various subsequent medical boards which would either have continued to make conditional awards or ultimately stopped them.

Interestingly, before he signed up as a career soldier with the South Lancs, he had served with the East Surrey militia and, therefore, it would be worth checking our militia records (WO96) when these go online in 2011.

As for why he joined the South Lancs Regt, he may have been approached by a recruiting sergeant for that regiment and decided to join. Despite the fact that Cardwell’s reforms of 1881 attempted to align the British line infantry along territorial or regional lines, regiments recruited not only in their own counties but also much further afield.

I have a minor study of this for the Border regiment on my Army Service Numbers blog and there’s also related information here.’

If you’d like to send your question to our experts, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account. Unfortunately our experts only have time to answer a few queries each month. If yours wasn’t answered this time, you could be lucky next month!

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured, answers your questions.

From Edward James Pace:

‘I’m having problems trying to find details of the death of my grandfather and, naturally, his parents. I have submitted his details in various searches and can get no results:

William Frederick Pace, born in 1876, joined the army in 1893, left the army in 1911 and rejoined in 1914. His service no. was G/27234 and he served in the Middlesex Regiment as a Sergeant.

William married Henrietta Mann in 1904. Their children were William, Thomas, Edward, Alice, Millicent and Emily. He died in 1918 – he was killed or wounded in France/Germany and cremated in England.

One would think that there is sufficient detail to find all about him easily but I’ve had no joy. I’d really appreciate if you can assist me in my frustrations.’

Steve says:

‘With other ranks – NCOs and privates – it is always a good idea to consider possible variations on given names, especially the loss of a middle name. I found that your grandfather died not in France and Flanders but here in the UK – in fact, his death was registered as plain William Pace in Croydon. This is good news in the sense that it means you can use the reference given in the March quarter 1919 civil death index to order a copy of his death certificate.

He appears on the official Commonwealth War Graves Commission website simply as W Pace; he died on 13 February 1919 and is buried in Islington Cemetery. The fact that he died in England also explains why he may not appear in some of the other WW1 record sources such as Soldiers Died in the Great War, available on findmypast.co.uk

Interestingly, the individual I believe to be your grandfather appears on the 1911 census as William Edward (not William Frederick) Pace. He is with the 2nd Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment at Guadeloupe Barracks, Bordon, near Aldershot. He is aged 36 and his birthplace is recorded as St Pancras. As you may know, soldiers and their wives and children ‘on the strength’ are on separate ‘military establishment’ census returns in the 1911 census.

In your grandfather’s case, his wife Henrietta (born in Clerkenwell) is shown together with three children William, Edward and Emily respectively born in Thayetmyo (Burma), Kassauli (India) and Alderney (Channel Islands), which shows something of your grandfather’s military career in the years up to 1911.

Your grandfather, however, does not appear to have been born in St Pancras as there is no corresponding entry in our fully indexed births nor, for that matter, an obvious entry for a person of his name born in St Pancras in the 1881, 1891 or 1901 censuses.

Further research shows that he married in July 1905 and was born in Shoreditch to parents Edward Pace, a carpenter, born in Shoreditch circa 1844/45, and Emma Burchell, born circa 1853/54 in Kentish Town, who were married in June quarter 1872 in St Pancras registration district. Hopefully with this extra information, you will be able to start researching your family tree further back in time more successfully.’

If you’d like to send your question to Steve, please register or opt to receive newsletters in My Account.

This week it was actor Rupert Everett’s turn to trace his family history. The programme focused mainly on Rupert’s grandfather, Cyril Frederick Cunningham Everett.

Rupert Everett (copyright Vicki Neave)

Cyril was born on 12 June 1886 at 20 Porchester Terrace, Hyde Park, to Georgina Teague and Frederick William Cunningham Everett. Here we can see Cyril Everett, aged 4, living as an ‘inmate’ in The Home For Little Boys in Horton Kirby, Kent on the 1891 census:

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The 1901 census reveals that Cyril Frederick still lived in the Home For Little Boys in Kent.

In 1908 Cyril went to Nigeria, where he worked on Lagos port. He travelled to and from Nigeria many times in the following years - we counted 15 separate journeys from the UK to Nigeria in our passenger lists. Here you can see one of the many journeys Cyril made:

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This records Cyril as a Civil Servant and also informs us that his last address in the United Kingdom was Browning Avenue in Boscombe.

Our passenger lists show that Cyril’s wife, Marcella, visited him several times in Nigeria. The journey she made in 1923 is recorded here - she’s recorded as Mrs C F C Everett:

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Cyril’s mother (Rupert’s great-grandmother), Georgina Everett nee Teague, appears on the 1871 census with her parents, Rupert’s great-great-grandparents, George and Esther Teague. George was a Railway Porter, Esther a Housekeeper and the family was living in Marylebone:

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The 1881 census shows Georgina living with her widowed mother Esther. Georgina was a Dressmaker while her mother was a Housekeeper. They were living at a ‘home for old ladies’ in Marylebone:

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Georgina Teague is a bit of a mystery: she literally disappears after the 1881 census and her marriage to Frederick William Cunningham Everett in 1883. Can you find out what happened to her? If you have any luck, post your findings underneath this blog post.

Our expert Stephen Rigden, pictured above, answers your questions.

From Sandra Lockwood in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia:

‘My grandmother’s father had two wives - the first is the one we cannot find. Her name was Elizabeth Hunt, born around 1861 - where we are not sure, but we were told it could have been Wilton, Wiltshire. Elizabeth had two sons to Joseph Manning, my great grandfather; we have the two boys’ birth certificates. The first boy was born Joseph Thomas Manning on 4 October 1881 at 10 Helmsley Street, Hackney, to Joseph and Elizabeth Manning, nee Hunt.

The second boy was born William Manning on 23 February 1885 in Alderbury at the Malt House Cottage Salisbury. His mother was Elizabeth Manning, nee Hunt. We know she existed but we cannot find a birth, marriage or death certificate for her - we know Joseph married Elizabeth Freak in 1889 and my grandmother was born 1890. I have been searching for over 12 months - can you help me?’

Steve says:

‘This is an interesting question. Assuming that you are absolutely certain that Elizabeth Hunt and Elizabeth Freak are definitely two different women, I think the most likely explanation for your predicament is that Joseph Manning and Elizabeth Hunt were never legally married.

Of course, this is not to say that they did not live as man and wife for a number of years, and may have presented themselves as married (the births of their children are certainly registered as if the parents were married). If you check the 1889 marriage certificate of Joseph to Elizabeth Freak, you may find that he is described as a bachelor rather than a widower; if you have not obtained a copy already, you should do so.

If they were not married, however, this gives rise to two other possibilities. Firstly, if Elizabeth, nee Hunt, did indeed die before 1889, her death may have been registered under Hunt not Manning. Secondly, perhaps Elizabeth did not die and the couple simply separated, with the sons Joseph and William staying with their father and their mother going her own way (and perhaps marrying another man as Elizabeth Hunt).

Unfortunately, while these possible explanations are worth considering, they do not make your job any easier, as of course Elizabeth Hunt is a very common combination of names. You would also need to bear in mind at least two geographically distinct areas - Greater London and Wiltshire - and possibly all stops in between and elsewhere.

You mention that Elizabeth Hunt may have been from Wilton, Wiltshire. As you may have noticed, on the April 1881 census there is a domestic servant of her name, aged 20 (born circa 1860/61) and born in Wilton, residing at 13 George Street, St Pancras, London. This could conceivably be your Elizabeth Hunt, unmarried and three months pregnant with Joseph Thomas. There is, however, no way of telling from this document in isolation.

Not all problems in family history are soluble. On all lines of all our family trees, sooner or later we come across a brick wall we cannot break down. Of course we all hope that the brick wall is reached later rather than sooner but sometimes we have to have the wisdom to accept that we can go no further. You may not be at that point in your research yet but I worry that there appears to be no straightforward way of advancing your research on this line.

Perhaps some of the family historians on findmypast.co.uk might have some ideas for you?’

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Following Monday’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? which featured Bruce Forsyth, we’ve found his ancestors in the census records at findmypast.co.uk. We’re sure you found the programme as fascinating as we did - read on to see Bruce’s controversial great-grandfather in our census records.

Bruce Forsyth

In the 1851 census you can see Bruce’s great-grandfather, Joseph Forsyth Johnson, with his mother and grandfather (a florist/nurseryman – not a gardener as Bruce’s cousin said in the programme). They were living in West Ella, Yorkshire:

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On the 1861 census you can see Joseph Forsyth Johnson (employed as a gardener) again living with his wife Elizabeth and her parents in Gilling, Yorkshire:

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The 1881 census shows Elizabeth (working as a housekeeper) with children, living in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Joseph Forsyth Johnson was not with the family:

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Elizabeth appears again on the 1891 census in Tottenham with her children  John (Bruce’s grandfather) and Christina, who wrote the diary Bruce received in the programme. John was working as a warehouse porter and Christina as a kitchen maid. Joseph Forsyth Johnson was not with the family again - as Bruce discovered, he had hot-footed it over to the USA with a younger woman and was enjoying considerable success and prosperity as a landscape gardener.

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We’re looking forward to the rest of the series!