Mystery unravelling! Partial answers.

[Nell]

Now I am retired I am chasing up loose ends.

My great-aunt Florence Emily Williams is a bit of a mystery. I was told she'd married a chap called "Alf Sibley" and my mother was not aware of any children. I knew they had lived at 40 Bullen Street because I have letters with that address.

I couldn't find a marriage for Florence but I did find her and an Alfred Sibley on various electoral rolls.

Alfred Sibley married Violet Mabel Milton in Dec 1913 in Battersea.

I had assumed that Alfred was unable to get a divorce and he and Florence posed as a married couple for respectability.

Just went back to find her on 1939 register and with her is listed an "Edward Sebley". He was born 29 Jan 1914, a year after Alfred and Violet married.

I've now found his baptism Feb 1914 as Donald Edward Sebley - in Battersea - parent are listed as "Alfred John & Florence Emily Sebley of 40 Bullen Street.

I can only conclude that Alfred and Violet's marriage was doomed from the start. If Florence carried Edward to term he would have been conceived 4 months after the wedding!