I realise that NICHOLSON is a very common name in Northumbria, but maybe somebody has connections that would throw light on my great grandmother, whose origins have been driving me mad. This is a long and tortuous story, so don't read on unless you want to! I have a marriage cert. showing Mary NICHOLSON wed Thomas DOWNING, after Banns, at Monk Heseldon Parish Church on May 18 1872. Mary is stated to be 19, father William NICHOLSON, a Mason. Both of the happy couple gave the address Castle Eden Colliery. This would give Mary's birth between about May 1872 and May 1873, although she was illiterate, so this may be questionable. The next Census, 1881, they are living at Humbles Yard, Ryhope St., Ryhope, and Mary is now stated to be 27, born at Seaham Harbour. In 1891 they are at 37 Queen St., Ryhope, Mary is 38, born at Seaham Harbour. In 1901 they are at 42 Bond St. Sunderland, and Mary is 47, born at Seaham. Mary, now Mary DOWNING of course, died at Sunderland Municipal Hospital in February 1936, age given as 83 - this was from her daughter. All of this is entirely consistent and shows she believed she was born at Seaham Harbour around 1872-3. However, the only Mary Nicholson to be found born in the Seaham area at the right sort of time was Mary NICHOLSON, baptised at Seaham Harbour Church of St. John on 29 August 1855. I have a copy of the birth certificate, and it shows she was the daughter of William NICHOLSON and Catherine WEARS, born 9th July 1855. There is no other Mary NICHOLSON in the GRO born in the Easington Registration District between 1850 and 1855. For a long time I assumed this must be her, because the father's name was right, until I decided to find her in 1861 and 1871 censuses. Not being able to locate her at first, I checked her parents in 1881, and to my disgust found her widowed mother Catherine living at 29 Ryhope St., Ryhope with daughter Mary Ann WILE, aged 25, born Seaham Colliery. Checking back in 1861 and 1871 I found William (a Sinker in 1861, a Miner in 1871)) and Catherine NICHOLSON living at 13, and then 65, Ryhope St., with children including in 1861Mary Ann NICHOLSON age 6 born in Moorsley, which is adjacent to Seaham, and in 1871, Mary NICHOLSON, born in New Seaham. So it now seemed that this could not be the family of my Mary, since this one ended up marrying a John Johnson WILE about 1876. Looking further, I eventually found, in 1871, a Mary NICHOLSON age 18, born at Seaham, a servant at the Wellington Inn, Ryhope St., Ryhope. Since her future husband Thomas DOWNING also lived in Ryhope in 1871 at Burdon St., Ryhope Colliery, I think this Mary must be mine - right age, right birthplace. So far, my efforts to find another William NICHOLSON, a mason, who could have been her father, have been entirely fruitless. But what is puzzling me is the number of coincidences in this story. Both Marys had fathers named William, both fathers had mining-related jobs; both Marys were born in Seaham Harbour or nearby, and both of them lived in Ryhope St. in 1871. Then in 1873 Mary and Thomas DOWNING were living back in Ryhope again in the same street as the WILE family, and stayed in that area for some years.The fact that I have spent months looking in the Co. Durham censuses for 1861 and 1871 and not found a family for the older Mary compounds the problem. And although the Mary that became Mary WILE seems to be the one born in 1855, that one was neither baptised nor registered as Mary Ann, which is the name used in 3 censuses out of 4 by the one who became Mary ANN WILE. So I wonder if my Mary was somehow connected to the other one - cousins, maybe. But her birth certainly wasn't registered where it should have been, and I have no idea where she was in 1861. Any suggestions? Adrian, Hants.