I believe there may be some connection between my family and Elizabeth Costain.

According to my grandmother, James William Howell (b:1857) was the product of an affair and thus adopted into our family under the name James Howell. Consequently I have no records of James from before his marriage to Margaret Jane Harper in 1882.

My grandmother is adamant that James Howell's birth mother was an "Elizabeth Costain of Costain the builders". For over a year this has meant nothing to me until I began to research Constain in relation to building companies. Having established Richard Constain founded 'Constain the builders' I was still at a standstill as to where an 'Elizabeth' fitted in until coming across this forum and discovering Richard's mother was Elizabeth Costain (Redhead).

With him being born around 1857 (according to 1891 and 1901 England and Wales census') and living in the Malvern area of England the story is certainly possible and I was just wondering if anyone had any information they could give me to prove/disprove this family mystery!

Grace