There are many people from the past that I would like to have for Christmas dinner but as this is the Lincolnshire list I'll choose one of my Lincolnshire ancestors. I would love to have met my 3x great grandmother who was born Rebecca MOTLEY in Toynton all Saints in 1796 and died in Holbeach in 1865. I would ask her why she and her first husband, Edward BLANCHARD, married in Alford in 1815 and they were both 'minors'? (there was no indication of their ages in the relevant PRs. He came from Halton Holgate and she from Toynton all Saints - but maybe they were both working in Alford. Or did they go there so they could lie about their ages? Did the families not approve? Was she pregnant? (if she was she must have lost the child as their only child, a son, Thomas Mo(o)re BLANCHARD, was not born until a year later) How and/or why did Edward die in March 1818 and was buried in Halton Holgate where he was born? There was no mention of cause of death in the PRs. How did she find her next husband and marry again so quickly? She married my 3x great grandfather, Richard HUNTER (a blacksmith) in August of 1818 in Holbeach. Was Richard a good man who was willing to take on a young lady with a toddler, or did she really fall in love again so soon after her first husband died? Or was she 'knock down dead gorgeous" and all the men were after her?? Rebecca and Richard's two children were not born till 1823 and 1825 so did she have miscarriages before 1823? And then she was widowed again in 1828 (again, how and why did Richard die) so how did she cope? I understand that her son, (my great grandfather), William Motley HUNTER spent a lot of his childhood with his MOTLEY grandmother in Toynton - did Rebecca have a good relationship with him - or did she lose him to his grandmother? Was he a handful and as a widow did Rebecca had a hard time caring for him. William Motley HUNTER became a well respected and highly thought of Methodist minister. What sort or relationship did she have with William BOON who was her "partner" and a blacksmith and living in the household in censuses? How did he come to the business and did he have any "issues" with her BLANCHARD grandson, who was also a blacksmith, who was living with them? He eventually ended up in Grimsby. Rebecca was also a "publican" in one census and a "beer retailer" in another so she must have been a very hard working woman. Did she have a happy life? Was her childhood happy as one of nine children (six of whom survived infancy) and all girls? Did her father harbour any resentment towards his daughters as boys were so 'important' to families at that time? Her daughter lived at home but didn't get married till she was almost 40 (after Rebecca died), but she had three children and one of them had BOON as a middle name, so William BOON must have played quite an important part in the family. And, what would she think of the type of food I would give her for a Christmas dinner? So many questions................ Wouldn't it be great if there were answers to all the questions we all have? Elizabeth Pugh Whitehorse Yukon, Canada