Hello Sue, thanks for your reply.

I had noticed the 26 years of marriage on the 1911 entry and it did make me wonder ......... when, what and why etc. I think Liz at the time did mention perhaps WHC did train her up in his occupation and yes she could quite possibly had this type of occupation pre IOM days.

I have seen and used that website you mention, and it has become invaluable to me to find out who the various Alice Emilies born on the IOW and married on the IOW, if at all. It is a pity that it is not possible to put just the first name/s in you have to have a surname, which I find from the freebmd website.

As for the Alice Emily Bull you mention she went on to marry a Charles J Jacobs and 'hey presto' they appear on the 1901 census together, which does eliminate that Alice Emily. One promising one was an Alice Emily Hayden birth registration September 1865 Ryde, she was on the 1881 census as a 16 year old with her parents, her occupation was of an apprentice (non domestic), which looked interesting, she went on to marry a Horace Brown and they were both on the 1901 census in London. Another one eliminated.

I am looking at Alice Emilies with a birth year of prior to 1867, for instance in front of me here I have a list and the first one is an Alice Emily Attrill March 1859. On the 1901 census the age of Alice was stated as 40 (born 1860) on the 1911 census which she no doubt informed this information her self she was 44 (born 1867). Another name I have in front of me is an Alice Emily Elderfield Dec 1871, but I think this one may be a bit late.

It has been quite a task sorting through these ones, difficult because not all were appearing on the censuses with their full names just a first name, which means it could be 'any old Alice'. There are so many swings and roundabouts as you can imagine eg not the correct birthplace, not the correct birth year and so it goes on.

I do think I may tone down this search for a marriage for an Alice Emily ? it just would of been interesting to see if I could find out any more about her life pre William Henry Cox, and concentrate on trying to find out what become of her after William Henry Cox died in 1910. This possibly involves electoral registers if she lived on the IOM or failing that a death for her.

Ewan