As Wendy says, it was customary to refer to married women in this way . I remember an old man in the UK always referring to Mrs James ...... and Mrs John ........... even though he must have known the Christian names of the ladies concerned. I believe that it was only after the death of their husband that they were then known by their own initials, so that Mrs William Cross would only become Mrs Mary Cross after the death of her husband. This does suggest that possibly William was still alive when Mary junior died in 1850. HTH Maureen . From: Wendy King via <[email protected]> To: Lin <[email protected]>; [email protected] Sent: Saturday, 11 October 2014, 0:01 Subject: Re: [YORKSGEN] Missing persons Lin quick initial response: wife of Mr W Cross was the correct formal mode of address- the practice continued well into the 20th century. I Letters to married women for more often than not addressed to, for example: Mrs William Cross up to the 1960s and maybe even later You will find many burials entries in parish registers for wife of/widow of, e.g, William Cross which is particularly irritating when one was hoping that the burial would at least give you the first name of the mother of his children ! Wendy