Dear Rosemary,

it was good to read that you were researching your family and that you asked for help when reaching a stumbling block.

I am not sure if you are a member or not but at least the Society has records of this family and at some stage you should contact our record keeper, Mary Rix about them.

The technique I adopted was to find Joseph and Mary's children from the Society records and look for them (actually Ernest) in the 1901 Census and up popped Mary with two children but no Joseph. Mary's birth year was later than that of 1891 and even later still in 1911. At least then she had a few more children and Joseph was back at home.

So what to try to locate Joseph as Mary described herself in 1901 as Head of household and married? Did his work involve a night shift? Was he in prison or hospital? Had he joined the army and was in the Boer war? I don't think he died until about 1939 at the ripe old age of 69yrs. I have left you the hard part to have a go at or perhaps find out from family/cousin legend some event in Joseph's life that might tell you the reason for him being missing the night of that 1901 census.

Let me know how you get on in finding Mary's address in 1901 and if you solve the mystery of Joseph being temporarily missing somewhere.

Michael.