Hi Eileen Don't assume that, because Frances' death certificate shows she as a widow, this is true. With a seafaring husband, he may have just "strayed". Like Jenny, I have seafaring ancestors and this is more common that you may imagine. And, like Jill TURNER's note, I have many name changes and borrowed identities, too. I have, for my own Father, 3 separate identities and a black hole: John William Frederick FORREST, b. 4 Aug 1882 in North Shields (true), joins the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1904 as John William GILBERT (the married name of his elder sister), appears as JWFF in Southampton, married with 2 children, last born 1914, disappears in 1919 from the Isle of Wight and then reappears in the 1930's in Hammersmith, London, as William James LOVE, "b. 4 Aug 1887". This identity, I believe, is based on a Liverpool sailor! 1919-1934 is a mystery but I'm homing in on a William LOVE sailing out of Bermuda! The moral is "Never believe what anyone writes down without conclusive corroborating evidence". In the case of a death certificate, it is hearsay. Best regards, John ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 20:17:03 -0000 From: "Eileen Sturt" <eileen.sturt@tiscali.co.uk> Subject: [DUR-NBL] John Williamson , Mariner To: <DUR-NBL-L@rootsweb.com> Message-ID: <002701c73106$82e52a90$0201a8c0@eileenbb6cb466> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hello Jenny, Many thanks for all your "techniques" for extracting the information from the census returns- they have been a great help and I have had lots of fun exploring . Your discovery of a possible John Williamson senior though,in 1871, can't be correct because he had died before his wife Frances died early in 1867. Her death certificate shows her a widow. I have written to the holders of the Wellesley records and am hoping they come up with some clues about the boys' parentage. I will try the Mariners list too as I now feel sure I have the correct ship in 1861 and, as you say, someone is likely to know whether or not she went down, etc. Thanks once again, Eileen