Lin Another thought along the lines of William possibly still being alive- did the marriage certificates just state his name or did they state he was deceased? I am wondering if William and Mary separated or he deserted her - I have family units where even in fairly small places a couple have split and each is shown as part of a 'new' couple on subsequent censuses. You will know that there are a number of William CROSS born around the same year as your William in the North Riding though give East or West Heslerton as a place of birth - one way to see if he is living with a new 'wife' could be to track each of these Williams back to see if any do not link to another family before 1850. A quick scan through these doesn't show any farmers but given that he was 17 in 1841 he may have changed occupation - what do the marriage certificates show as his occupation? William is definitely not in Allerston in 1851 - I checked each page. Wendy ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message