Hello Paul, What you don't say is whether or not you've looked for them in the Herefordshire 1851! For your reasoning that they 'must' have been living in Worcestershire seems flawed at best. West Malvern Ecclesiastical Parish, where they married in 1850, was only created in 1844, and it's early name was 'Mathon St George'. Although administratively in Worcestershire, it was in Ledbury Registrtion District, and so treated for Census Purposes as being in Herefordshire. Leigh Civil Parish included what are now Malvern Link and North Malvern. Cradley ('always' in Herefordshire) adjoined both Leigh and Mathon. Births had to be registered in the District in which they occurred - and *NOT* where the mother (usually) resided. Four Registration Districts, in two Counties met within ¼ mile of West Malvern church. They could have been living in Worcestershire - but recorded as being in Herefordshire in the Census... Gus ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Taylor <northshields1947-worcestershire@yahoo.co.uk> To: <ENG-WORCESTER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 10:22 AM Subject: [WOR] 1851 Census - Simmons > Thank you all who replied to my earlier posting. Some asked a few extra > questions - hence the composite response. > > Certainly the Charles Simmons (or Symonds) is the one who married Sarah > Hadley in West Malvern in February 1850. Interestingly the marriage > certificate describes both as being of full age even though Sarah was > clearly only about 17 - but she was pregnant. Their first child, Helen, was > baptised in West Malvern just six months later. According to the 1861 census > Helen was born in Leigh, Worcestershire which is just outside Malvern. I > think therefore that in 1851 they must have been living in Worcestershire > and were probably just missed off the census. I have come across that quite > often, especially with ancestors who could not read or write. I had always > assumed (just guesswork) that that was because they could not fill any forms > in and the census officials would soon get fed up with calling on them if > they were always not at home for whatever reason. > > Thanks again to all who tried to help but it looks as though I am not going > to get any further forward in finding much out about Charles. > > Regards, > > Paul Taylor > > > ==== ENG-WORCESTER Mailing List ==== > FreeREG Project: parish register database > http://freereg.rootsweb.com > > UK Census on-line > http://freecen.rootsweb.com/ > http://www.worcestershiresurnames.co.uk/ > >