Help in finding missing marriage

[yumyum46]

Hello
I've been offered the chance to travel to Oxford archives if I have any family I need to research there. I've only one - a mysterious 'wife' recorded on the 1881 census to my great grandfather George MILES.

They are recorded as living at 3 Parsons Yard, Walcot, Bath. He has a spouse Bessie MILES who records that she was born in Oxfordshire. The child living with them is a family orphan.

He is then married to Caroline TAYLOR on 24 Aug 1889 recorded on the marriage certificate as a Batchelor with no sign of a death for Bessie or what happened to her.

I've searched for a marriage over the years but not been able to find one and I have no idea what her maiden name would be. Any tips on how to go about this and if it would be worth taking the time to travel to Oxford when I have so little to work with?

Thanks in advance

Frances

 

[Tim]

Hi Frances, welcome to the Forum.

If you have the marriage certificate for 1889 which says he was a batchelor, are you sure you have the correct 1881 census?
They might have just been living together and not married?
Bessie could be short for Bess, Betsey, Elspeth, Elizabeth.

Could the enumerator have got the entry wrong and this was his sister Elizabeth or another relative? I know its not his sister as she married a Thomas Keeping.

Thomas Keeping is shown as a grandson in 1871.

Oxford in her where born is on the left hand side of the column, this would suggest to me that it refers to the county and not the city.

Not much help, sorry.

 

[yumyum46]

Hi Frances, welcome to the Forum.

If you have the marriage certificate for 1889 which says he was a batchelor, are you sure you have the correct 1881 census?
They might have just been living together and not married?
Bessie could be short for Bess, Betsey, Elspeth, Elizabeth.

Could the enumerator have got the entry wrong and this was his sister Elizabeth or another relative? I know its not his sister as she married a Thomas Keeping.

Thomas Keeping is shown as a grandson in 1871.

Oxford in her where born is on the left hand side of the column, this would suggest to me that it refers to the county and not the city.

Not much help, sorry.

Thanks - hadn't thought that it might not be them as they match up in other respects but there are a lot of MILES in the Walcot area (most of them related) I shall do some family charts to prove/disprove

Many Thanks

 

[Pauline]

Assuming this does prove to be your George Miles, I suspect a trip to Oxford won't help much without knowing Bessie's surname.

One option might be to search for all Bessies born Oxford/Oxfordshire around the right time in the 1871 and 1891 censuses and then see how many you can eliminate by locating them in 1881. However, as Tim says, someone entered as Bessie in one census could be entered as any other variation of Elizabeth elsewhere, though you could search on Bess* to accommodate similar variants.

I'm assuming you don't know of any children born to George & Bessie? If they did happen to have had a child them you could of course get her maiden name from the birth certificate.