Frances, Hi,

On the Sheard side, I believe the trail is
T M Sheard b 1889; A M Sheard b 1891
parents Thomas Mylchreest Sheard and Catherine Jane Caine
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T M Sheard SNR was born 08-11-1857 to Daniel Sheard and Margaret Mylchreest.

I understand that TM snr and his wife both died young and TMS and AMS were brought up with the family of "the Diamond King".

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Daniel Sheard married Margt Mylchreest in 1853, hence the Mylchreest connection. Daniel was born c1828 to a John Sheard, mother not yet identified

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The Jane QUirk who married a John Sheard in 1854 is not an ancestor of AMS, but the John she married could be a widower so she may be a stepmother to Daniel of 1828.

The Manx soldiers file in MNB refers to two John SHeard soldiers, born in 1771 and 1794. with the suggestion they may be father and son, both being born across. The 1794 soldier is the more promising candidate, so it may be that John (1794) married Miss X and had Daniel in 1828 and X later died and the widower married Jane Quirk in 1854 when he would be 60 and she would be 53.

None of this is proven at present and it may be a coincidence, but it looks promising as a route to explore.

If I am right that Jane Quirk/Sheard was the stepmother of Daniel then the connection with the Sheard family would be tenuous, and at the time when Caleb C joined the MER, ie before 1914, as Tom Sheard SNR was dead and AMS was at most 20 yrs old, it is not lilely that he would have had much pull with the MER folks.

Mrs Jane Sheard of the 1881 census, was, as Mrs Jane Quirk, presumably the mother of Margaret Ann Quirk of 1824, i.e she was Caleb Corkhill's mother.

One always seems to wander into a maze for some reason !!!

Robert