Hi Brian,
You have helped me regarding enquiries about the "Canepa family".As you say there are no entries in any census taken in the Isle of Man from 1851-1871 for Lazarus Canepa.He is in the 1881 census living in Oban Scotland.Why he never appeared in a census in the Isle of Man is a mystery to me.
Lazarus married Alice Green on 16th April 1850,Canon Brendan Alger from St.Mary RC.Church has been very kind and has sent me photo copies of church records.The first entry for April 16th 1850 was for :
Baptised Conditionally Alice Green,adult
the next entry for the same day is:
Married, Lazarus Canepa to Alice Green,
witnesses William Rogers & Ellen Green.
I believe the mix up with Josephs age was that he was born in 1854 and at the time of the 1881 census he would have been 27.I have the copies of the baptisms of all the children [4] of Lazarus and Alice,again thanks to Canon Alger. I also have their marriage certificates to their respective spouses giving their ages,from the Isle of Man Registry.
Alice was never a widow,she died in Douglas on 1st February 1878,Lazarus died in Oban on 16th May 1894.An historian for Argyll-Bute Council [Murdo MacDonald] told me that Lazarus would have arrived in Oban sometime during 1879.As well as running a Drapers shop in High St Oban he was also lending money to buisiness people and placing bonds on their properties.When he died he left his sons John and Joseph and his surviving daughter Angelina quite alot of property.
Another unexplained item of knowledge that I have is that Alice Canepa is buried with her parents and siblings not in any Canepa grave.
Cheer s for now Doug Canepa.