[Merry]

Oh well done for finding that, Kate. Just goes to show, I didn't try hard enough because I didn't expect to find it!

Unbelievable about the fathers names!! No reason for Walter's not to be recorded, as he was a second child born three years after his parents married. Plus he (Walter) was in his parents household aged about 20 in 1841.

As for the signature - I was only able to get a copy of the marriage cert from the GRO for Elizabeth. All I can say is, she could sign her name, whilst her husband couldn't/didn't.

Anyway, here's a bit of better news! When I was looking to see who Walter's father was, I noticed his mother was Rachel Sparrow. This name rang a bell, so I searched for people called Sparrow on my tree, and, surprise, surprise, my Elizabeth Saunders had a son named Cornelius George Burchill and Cornelius married Ellen Rachel Sparrow!

Ellen Rachel was born in 1862 in Siston or Wick and Abson (next parish), Gloucestershire. Her father (from marriage entry and census etc) was John Sparrow, brother of Walter. This John may have been the John Sparrow who witnessed Walter's marriage. John did manage to name his father when he married and was living with his parents in 1841 and with his widowed mother in 1851.

So, quite good circumstantial evidence tying these families, though Cornelius George Burchill only had to travel about 5 miles to find a bride, so I suppose it could still be a co-incidence. I feel the net is closing slowly though!

Wouldn't it be helpful if, when Mary Sparrow died, her death was registered by her sister, Elizabeth Burchill?!! Not that I'd be any further forward with their parents, John and Ann Saunders.