Hi Karen

The question of whether or not the 41, 51, 61 and 71 census entries are of your family seems to hang on whether we've got the right John Corlett in 1881 at Lezayre D, district 1c, page 6.

I felt confident enough to post yesterday's messages after having checked the occupations of all the other John / Jno Corlett / Corlet's in the age range 17-27 in 1881. There were 20 in all, and only one was a mason. Incidentally, I discovered a facility with 1881 Ancestry which I hadn't previously latched onto. For anyone who doesn't already know this, if you hold the cursor over the "view record" on the left, without clicking on the image to open it, you get a preview screen which, in 1881, includes the occupation.

There may be more John Corletts in this age range which have been mistranscribed, and yours might be hiding amongst them. It's a shame that Brian Lawson's census indexes don't include 1881, so I can't check if I've "got them all." Has anyone got access to the other 1881 census index ? I think that Donna might have a copy.

Do you have a death date / certificate / MI for John, and if so, what age at death does it give ? I wonder if his baptism is in the IGI under his father's name.

As a general question about an illegitimate person giving the name of his / her father for the marriage certificate----what if the father's name isn't known, or if only a christian name is known ? Is it entered on the certificate as "not known " or just a christian name ?

Jean C