Thanks Dawn (and Larraine and Wendy) I thought it might be worth a shot but now I'm guessing the death certificate won't be worth buying. The middle names of Helen and Ellen seem to have been interchangeable throughout her life but it is Ellen on her gravestone (not that headstones are necessarily accurate!) She married David Enverdale SPENCE in Scotland in 1850. Shelley > No parents mentioned.. Note it has Mary Helen not Ellen. Did she marry in > Victoria?... Nothing obvious unless they got Mary HEADON marrying James > SPENCE out of Mary Helen / Ellen. It is possible I guess. > Here's the death record on the cd.

If they married in Scotland and you can find the marriage AND it is after civil registration, then it may well have the parents' names on it. Victoria followed the Scottish system rather than the English one, so I would expect them to be quite informative. Dawn -----Original Message----- From: s clarke [mailto:mercury3@webone.com.au] Sent: Saturday, 22 April 2006 2:44 PM To: AUS-MELBOURNE-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [AUS-MELB] Mary Ellen SPENCE 1885 death record (CD) Thanks Dawn (and Larraine and Wendy) I thought it might be worth a shot but now I'm guessing the death certificate won't be worth buying. The middle names of Helen and Ellen seem to have been interchangeable throughout her life but it is Ellen on her gravestone (not that headstones are necessarily accurate!) She married David Enverdale SPENCE in Scotland in 1850. Shelley > No parents mentioned.. Note it has Mary Helen not Ellen. Did she marry in > Victoria?... Nothing obvious unless they got Mary HEADON marrying > James SPENCE out of Mary Helen / Ellen. It is possible I guess. > Here's the death record on the cd. ==== AUS-MELBOURNE Mailing List ==== ==================================================== Virus warnings are not to be sent to the List! ============================== Find your ancestors in the Birth, Marriage and Death Records. New content added every business day. Learn more: http://www.ancestry.com/s13964/rd.ashx

Thanks Dawn. They did marry in Scotland (on 14 June 1850) but I don't think civil registration came in until around 1855 so there would only be the parish record and I hear they are usually pretty basic. Never mind. It's all part of the fun (and challenge)! Thanks again, Shelley > If they married in Scotland and you can find the marriage AND it is after > civil registration, then it may well have the parents' names on it. > Victoria followed the Scottish system rather than the English one, so I > would expect them to be quite informative. Dawn