I can't seem to give this family up!

I was looking at the 1851 census entry for John QUAY and Louisa (with Manspah 14 & John 6) and the two "visitors" Margaret CHRISTIAN 25 Servant and William KEWLEY 23. This census was taken on March 31. A few days later, on April 24 in Braddan, there is a marriage on the IGI of William KEWLEY and Margaret CRAINE. It would be good if somebody could look at the original marriage entry, because if CRAINE was CHRISTIAN, then it would change a lot of things. For one thing, it would be easy to explain why these two visitors are with this particular family, because they are about to marry.

To pursue this theory, I looked to see if the Margaret CRAINE b about 1823 could be married to somebody else. There were several potentials, but I could eliminate all but two by checking ages and other factors on census's. One is the one we know about (to Wm Kewley). The other one is in 1853 to John HUGHES. The 1861 and 1871 census's have Margaret HUGHES as matching very well to Margaret Craine's 1823 birth in Douglas. She subsequently died and John HUGHES married another Margaret (why do they have to do these things!!), which made for a somewhat different 1881 because it had stepchildren.

I now don't know if the wife of William Kewley is Margaret CRAINE or Margaret CHRISTIAN, as a case could be made for both. To figure it out would require looking at original records, wills, and whatever else can be found.

The good part is that Mary and Millie are still related because they both descend from Lucy CRAINE, the mother of both William KEWLEY (we've discussed this at length) and Manessah QUAY, who were half-brothers.

I'm confident this will get sorted out eventually, and I'll be curious to know how it turns out.

PS, if you ever try to find Lucy QUAY on 1861, she's not there. But, the Ann QUAYE widow age 50 {young, but Lucy claimed to be 40 in 1851) and John QUAYE age 17 Tailor on Strand St could be them. There is no match to an Ann & John on any other census, so it could be a census-taker error. John's half-brother William KEWLEY was a Tailor, but John eventually became a shoemaker and shows up on later census's.

And one last bit. There is a burial of a John QUAY age 57 on 6 Apr 1851 Braddan on Brian's burial index. That's only 6 days after the census, but it could be your John.