Dear List Members, My thanks to Barbara & Stan for their suggestions and locating a birth record for John Thomas Rimer in local Sunderland records. Perhaps someone more experienced with British records can help me with my "brick wall" question. My three-times great grandparents, Thomas Rimer & Mary Ann Derry/Deary, married in Berwick-Upon-Tweed in 1849 & 1850 (one civil marriage, one church marriage). Mary Ann (born abt 1831) and her father, John Derry/Deary (spelled differently on each marriage record) are the people I know practically nothing about. I figure if I locate Thomas and Mary Ann in the 1851 census, there may some specific info written there to help me identify her place of birth. United States census records mention her place of birth as "Scotland"; that is all I have to go on. Also, her father is listed on the marriage records as a soldier on the first certificate and an "out pensioner" on the second cert. Mary Ann died in Missouri, (United States) before official death records were mandatory, and their house burned down at some point, destroying many personal items... Can anyone out there tell me how to proceed to solve this mystery? Mary Anna Fox