Thank you Len for your reply and you have raised a good point. My main interest is in Louise/a Spence (nee Cregeen) and John Spence, the cabinet maker as these are my great grandparents.

I had puzzled over Louise for a while as she was born in Liverpool and I had always believed that she had been a Manx woman called Catherine Cregeen. I discovered that she had been born in Liverpool to Isle of Man parents - Robert Cregeen and his wife Louise and that her full name was Louise Catherine Cregeen. Her parents and sister(?) must have died because she lived with her grandmother Catherine Hunter for the years before her marriage to my great grandfather and her aunt Amelia (her sister having died??). Knowing that her grandmother was a Hunter, I found she had been married to Jas/James and assumed him to be my g g g grandfather but this does feel like a bit of guesswork and I get a little muddled with the generations!! Are you suggesting that James/Jas wasn't her grandfather? Have I got confused? It is all fascinating but so much detective work!!

I am pretty well 100% sure that the Louise Cregeen staying with her grandmother Catherine Hunter is my g grandmother. She was born in Liverpool and the dates fit. Oh no .. I'd hate to be wrong with that too! So many Cregeens ... but not so many from Liverpool. Thanks. Christine x