I searched for YEARS for my great grandfather. He was Scottish, so his death cert told me who his parents were but I simply could not identify him on census even though his mother had quite an unusual forename.
Eventually, the story unfolded after I accidentally found the mother's burial place. They married in 1862, had two children and she died in 1865. By 1871, he was back living with his parents and described as unmarried. His children were living with their maternal grandmother and were described as boarders on census, not grandchildren. The maternal grandmother was on her third bout of widowhood and it took three lots of marriage entries to confirm my hunch that she was their grandmother. She did eventually reward me by living to 94 and getting a bit in the paper describing how she had kept the lighthouse until 92, climbing over 100 stairs 4 times a day.
I have several instances of life changing events happening between census, all are things found accidentally by idle googling!
OC
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