Paul You say you have tried all the spelling variants that you can come up with, am I right to assume you have tried ADNEY/ADENEY/ATNEY. There are a number of ADNEYs in the Tiverton area according to the 1851/61/71 censuses and also looking at the IGI. I cannot find a Mary Ann but the name clearly exists in the correct region at least. I'm not too surprised that you cannot find a birth registration in the GRO indexes, birth registration was far from universal until I think 1855 when the law was changed to make it the responsibility of the parent to register the birth rather than the registrar. You may need to resort to finding a christening record rather than a birth registration. I don't know the Devon parishes very well, you may find some help with the Devon OPC (http://genuki.cs.ncl.ac.uk/DEV/OPCproject.html) although I can see that Tiverton itself is not covered. Aileen's suggestion is also a good one, but if this is the case it's going to be difficult to track Mary Ann down unless you know her mother's name, for which you will need a marriage for Henry and spouse. Jon Baker -----Original Message----- So, to the point and where I am hoping for some inspiration. Despite all this evidence pointing me towards her birth being around 1845, I am unable to find any birth record anywhere in the UK for a Mary Ann HADDNEY (indeed any HADDNEY or HADNEY or other spelling derivation I could come up with) from 1837 through to 1855. I've tried everything I can think of, but without success and am close to giving up. I cannot find anything on any of the usual internet sites (free or with subscription) nor have I had any success with the local registrars.