Further to my message about Rebecca Downing of Botesdale's mother: - In the 1871 Census, Frederick Downing, who was Rebecca's uncle in the 1861 Census, is still living in Mellis, but with another niece, Ellen Downing, age 12. This is obviously Rebecca's sister who was living with Sarah in 1861, when I had read the name as Ella, but closer inspection shows it is Ellen. You can therefore take it that Sarah Downing was the unmarried mother of Rebecca, and the only likely way of finding the father is to find a baptismal record, which might refer to a father, or possibly a bastardy bond. The mention of a father in her marriage certificate could be her idea of who it was, or quite possibly an invented person to make it look that she wasn't illegitimate. I have one ancestor whose marriage certificate named her father as a man who died three years before she was born. Adrian