Hi Gillian

Please can you ask Audrey to look not just for the witnesses but also for the occupation of Thomas Wilson. Until we know his occupation, we can’t progress in finding out exactly who Annie Wilson was.

The possibilities are:

1)Thomas Wilson was a name invented by Annie.
2) Thomas Wilson was an Englishman who didn’t live on the IOM at census time, so tracing him would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
3) Thomas Wilson was one of the two English-born people who lived on the island at census time, discussed by David a couple of days ago.

3a) English-born publican age 34 in 1901, warehouseman b Salford in 1911, living in Ramsey with wife Catherine Jane nee Kennish. They had 4 children, “3 alive, one died” in 1911, and all those 3 children are with their parents, all b Ramsey. I’ve ruled this Thomas out.

3b) English born carter age 48 in 1901, husband of Jane Mylchreest. I think he’s the 49 yr old who was buried in Braddan in March 1902. On the face of it, he couldn’t be the father of Ann Jane Christian Wilson b 25th December 1903, birth registered in 1904 in manxbmd. David discounted this Thomas Wilson on the grounds that he had a daughter named Ann Jane age 15 in 1901.

IF Thomas Wilson’s occupation turned out to be “Carter” on Annie’s 1928 marriage certificate, then I have a theory that Ann Jane Christian Wilson was the illegitimate daughter of Ann Jane “Wilson” b 1885 (the illegitimate daughter of Jane Wilson nee Mylchreest), and that the baby/young child was left with her grandmother, widow Jane Wilson nee Mylchreest and brought up in her early years thinking that her grandmother was her mother-----until family circumstances led to her being cared for at Grenaby by spinster Elizabeth Corrin.

Ann Jane “Wilson” married William Lee in Douglas in 1906, and by 1911 the couple were living in Brigg, Lincolnshire, with their 2 young Douglas-born children. Ann Jane’s birthplace was Liverpool.

So you’ll see that finding out Thomas Wilson’s occupation is crucial to solving this. If my theory turns out to be correct, I’ll copy the relevant records into a separate message.

Jean C