My thanks to Nivard Ovington and Edie for their responses to my query (below). I now have the birth certificate for George CARBONE from the only likely GRO reference. He was born on 10 Nov 1844 in the workhouse at Hundleby (Spilsby district) of Sarah CARBONE; no father is shown. I wonder if "Samuel" was invented as a father's name to add respectability to his marriage certificate; perhaps the father was indeed a Samuel. In the 1851 census Sarah CARBON was age 24, one of numerous servants at Scrivelsby Court, Horncastle, with a birthplace recorded as Ramsey, Yorkshire. Sadly, I can find no such place. Nor have I yet found George (age about 6) in the 1851 census. Bruce Moffatt Collins Bracknell, Berkshire bmc34.fh@ntlworld.com -------------------------------------------- I am struggling to work back from George CABON born ca. 1844 in Spilsby, Lincs. He married Ellen SIMPSON in Sculcoates (Hull, Yorkshire) in 1867; the register has CABORN as his surname, also that of his father Samuel. In the poorly transcribed 1861 Census he is likely the servant George CABORN/CABAN in the family PATCHETT/PATCHELL at Bilsby/Spilsby. In the 1871 census he was in Hull as a policeman under the name CABON. He went on to be a successful grocer in Grimsby. I cannot find him (age about 6) in the 1851 census, nor have I found a convincing record of his father Samuel's birth. Who can help? -------------------------------------------------