Charlotte Ellen SMITH / EIGHTEEN

[Merry]

Would I have to go to the register office in Banbury, or could I order a copy from my local office?

I don't think Banbury register office still exists.

FreeBMD give info on where historic records are held and they have this to say about Banbury district records:

Registers currently held at : Oxfordshire, Warwickshire (Warwick) and Northamptonshire.

So, you would first need to phone one of these offices and ask whether they, or one of the other two offices, hold the marriage certificates for Banbury reg district for 1861? Hopefully they will know the answer (I've had reg offices deny holding records and each in turn state one of the others has them!). Once you know who to approach, you need to provide all the info you have about the marriage along with your payment to the correct office. Some local offices have online databases and ordering systems, but this area doesn't seem to have that, so you will probably have to write a letter, enclose a cheque and maybe an SAE too.

[Merry]

Here's a list of addresses and phone numbers, or, most are available by email, so that might be easier for your first enquiry!

http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/genuki/reg/regoff.html#695

[James18]

I'm much obliged to you, Merry. I've contacted the Oxford office by e-mail and provided the details you gave, along with a request for an exact photocopy of the original entry. I'll let you know when they reply.

And Kate, I am in agreement with you with regards to public family trees. As I said earlier, I shall try to verify the information myself. I think John Checkley is roughly b.1814 d.1892, but not sure about death dates for Thomas or Mary yet.

Hopefully those two certificates arrive next week.

[Merry]

Originally Posted by James18

I think John Checkley is roughly b.1814 d.1892,

This death reg is a closer fit for age than the 1892 entry:


Deaths Mar 1900
Checkley John 87 Banbury 3a 760

and I found a newspaper notice:

Northampton Mercury 09 February 1900:

CHECKLEY.- Feb.4. at Cropredy, John Checkley, 87.

[James18]

That's a very good find, Merry!

Which site do you use for those newspaper articles?

[Margaret in Burton]

James, you will discover that Kate and Merry are two of the best researchers in the world. If they can't find it, then it isn't there.

[Merry]

Stop it Marg *red face* (Kate's well ahead of me!)

The newspaper articles I've quoted on this site are from findmypast, which is not free, but another good site is Gale Cengage Learning Databases which may by available through your local library if you have a membership card.

[James18]

Yeah, I thought it might be findmypast. During the free trial last week I went through and viewed/downloaded all of the Eighteen family articles I could find.

[kiterunner]

at Marg and Merry's posts

The newspaper articles would also be on the British Newspaper Archive, but they don't seem to have one of those special £1 offers on at the moment as far as I can see, unfortunately.

[James18]

I can't find a suitable Mary Smith on the 1901 census, so I think her & Thomas' final appearance together is here in 1891.

I think you're right that Thomas is very likely the widower in Middlesex in 1901, and so logically that means Mary died at some point between 1891 and 1901. It's unlikely the family moved away from Reading whilst Mary was alive and any of their children were still living at home, so I think this could be a good candidate for Mary's death.

I'm not sure how or why Thomas ended up in Middlesex. He was ten years younger than Mary and presumably quite fit (if he was a tree feller in 1901) so perhaps he sold the house and moved away from Reading. Hard to speculate on the information we have.

We'll see how things go with the certificates; I'm not sure about when or where Thomas died but he will surely have been registered as Thomas Smith.

Thoughts?