Further to my message of a couple of months ago regarding whether the absence of any mention of the father of the bride or groom being deceased could be taken as confirmation that he was alive. Some listers replied that this wasn't always the case. This message is just to confirm that they were quite right. I have AT LAST discovered what happened to my 2 x gt. grandparents John and Jane Robinson (nee Cook) who I had been unable to find between 1831 (Stockton) and the second half of the 1840's when their children were back in Brotton/Skelton area. The first three marriage certificates I have for the children (1846, 1847 and 1859) do not mention that the father (John) was deceased. The fourth (1864) did say he was deceased. This lead me to believe that he must have died between 1859 and 1864. After a lot of research I had got nowhere. However, after a breakthrough just before Christmas, I found that John's widowed wife Jane had remarried in 1840 (Stockton district), and again in 1846 (Brotton). A combination of use of the online 1881 census and Familysearch finally did the trick (1881 census search for a Janes born 1803 in Yorkshire found a Jane Cuthbert (born Moorsholm) living at Brotton married to a Frankland Cuthbert). A check on Familysearch for their marriage found th! at Frankland married a Jane Hutchinson OR Cook. From this I assumed that this Jane's maiden name was Cook. A check of Free BMB found the marriage of Jane Robinson to a William Hutchinson in the Stockton District in 1840 - this has been confirmed as Jane Robinson (nee Cook) of the correct age. Hopefully the above may help other listers who may be having similar problems. I now believe that John (sailor) was the John Robinson aged 36 buried at St. Thomas Stockton on 6th December 1831, 5/6 weeks after the baptism of their last child. The family were living in Brunswick Street four years earlier. I had hoped he would have survived longer so that I could have found some records of him amongst the marine records at the PRO (Kew) but unfortunately this date is too early. If any lister has any information on Stockton newspapers/ ships etc of 1831 I would be grateful. Happy New Year to all. Margaret O'Shea (nee Robinson)