Find Ancestors

Hi there,

Trying to find a marriage cert. for my great grandparents, William Reeve and Margaret (maiden name unknown). The problem is, it is very likely that they married in India, as William was a sergeant in the army. I think they married in 1866 or earlier, and went on to have numerous children in India. I have the service sheets for William, but just need a marriage certificate for information on Margaret.

Any help or advice would be appreciated,

Bill

You could try the Regimental Marriages on FindMyPast or have a look at the familysearch site - they have India marriage and birth indexes.

Hello Bill, when was William born (and where)?

The more info we have, the more chance we have of finding (or eliminating) records.

1891


Name: William Reeve
Age: 51
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1840
Relation: Head
Spouse's Name: Margaret Reeve
Where born: Colchester, Essex, England

Civil parish: Clapham
Town: Clapham
County/Island: London
Registration district: Wandsworth

William Reeve 51
Margaret Reeve 39 - born Liverpool c1852
William H Reeve 15 - born Bengal c 1876
Charles E Reeve 11 - born Folkestone Kent
John A Reeve 3 - born Clapham London


Given the age difference between them, it seems unlikely they married c1866 -- one suspects that Margaret was a second wife ... wasn't there an 1876 possible marriage posted here, now gone?

I think this was the marriage suggested -

Marriages Jun 1876
Gibbs Margaret Susanna Woolwich 1d 1294
REEVE William Woolwich 1d 1294

but Gibbs was born 1843 Lewisham, I'd say.

If that is the family, this birth certificate should give Margaret's full name:

Births Jun 1887
Reeve John Alfred A Wandsworth 1d 569

mistranscribed in 1881


Name: Charles E. Rowe
Age: 1
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1880
Relation: Son
Father's name: William Rowe
Mother's name: Margaret Rowe
Where born: Shorncliffe, Kent, England

Civil parish: Clapham

William Rowe 40 - Chelsea Pensioner, Infantry
Margaret Rowe 28 - born c1853, Lancashire, Liverpool
Louisa Rowe 12 - born 1869, East Indies, Lucknow
William H. Rowe 10 - born c1871, East Indies, Chuckrata
Charles E. Rowe 1 - born Kent, Shorncliffe


The age gap suggests that William and Margaret were only recently married.



This is all information that it would have been right to supply in the first place, since you presumably have it?


Births Jun 1879
Reeve Charles Edward Elham 2a 937

Elham covers Folkestone, but I don't see a marriage in the vicinity.

Hi all,
Thanks for replying.

William Reeve was born in 1838, Colchester to Theophilus and Susannah Reeve (nee Saward). Yes I considered a few years back the Woolwich marriage to Margaret Gibbs, but my grandfather (also William Reeve) was born in 1870 in West Bengal, India. William and Margaret had to have been married before 7th Sept 1866 as that was when Margaret was put on the army roll of married establishment. I have looked on familysearch and the India Office Family History site but not FindMyPast as I don't subscribe. I think it is likely that Margaret was a daughter of an another soldier in India perhaps? And yes, that is the family in question on the '91 census

Bill

How on earth did you come across them in the '81?! I could only find them in the '91. Like I say though, they must have been married earlier, as i imagine to be put on the Roll of Married Establishment you'd have to prove your marriage, through a certificate or something?

William, now go back and read what I posted. ;-)

If Margaret was born about 1852-53, as she certainly seems to have been from the censuses, she didn't marry in about 1866.

And she didn't likely have a 12-year old daughterin 1881 (i.e. born when she was about 17).

There is a long gap between the child who was 10 in 1881 and the child who was 1 year old. This suggests that the first wife died during that time, and William remarried.

*That* Margaret in the censuses is most probably a second wife. His first wife may still have been a Margaret, of course.

You need the birth certificate for one of the younger children born in England.

Then you will have Margaret's full name, plus the info that she was born about 1852-53 in Liverpool, and it may be possible to identify her in births and censuses, depending on how common her surname is.

This could help place William in England before 1881. If his first wife died in England, it might be possible to find her death.

We crossed in the post. ;-)

I found them in 1881 by looking for son Charles by his date and place of birth, with parents Margaret and William, and *no surname*.

Surnames are mistranscribed more often than given names, so if the combination of names and dates and places is not too common, that search will often find people.

If that is the correct family in 1881 then 'that' Margaret was born c 1852.

The Margaret who was put on the Army married roll in 1866, 'IF' the same one, would only have been 14 at that time so I think it unlikely that it is the same Margaret.

It looks likely that he married twice, both times to 'a Margaret' ???

Dea x

And I can't find a Margaret Reeve death in England to suit, so it looks like she died in India.

There's a narrow time frame -- child born c1876 (or Michael may have more exact info), child born in England 1879 (presumably to second wife, but certificate is needed).

And of course the second marriage could have taken place in India as well.

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html

Three children's baptisms, parents William and Margaret

Louisa 1868 Lucknow, Bengal
Charles 1872 Peshawar, Bengal
William Henry 1870 Chukrata, Bengal

No marriage or death, though.

Yes, that William Henry is my William. I was thinking about buying John's or Charles's birth cert to get Margaret's maiden name, but now i need a back up plan to get the right Margaret! Oh dear!
William was discharged from the army in 1879, and on the statement of the amount paid for allowances to discharged soldiers and their families a Margaret was listed as his wife along with his 3 children, but which Margaret is it?! First or second wife i wonder??? They were going from Shorncliffe to London, but the record is not dated so I can't be sure of a time scale

Name: Charles Reeve
Gender: Male
Burial Date: 11 Dec 1873
Burial Place: Campbellpore, Bengal, India
Death Date: 10 Dec 1873
Death Place:
Age: 1
Birth Date: 1872
Father's Name: William Reeve
Father's Birthplace:
Mother's Name: Margaret

Boondoggle, isn't it? If only our ancestors had been more original with their names. We could have had gr-grmothers named Britanny and gr-grfathers named Tyler. Of course, two generations hence, family trees will be as rife with them as ours are with Margarets and Williams ...

(I don't think I have a single Margaret! But Sarahs ... ye gods ... Cornwall, Nottingham, Northamptonshire ... Sarahs litter my landscape ...)

So he was discharged in 1879 with 3 children, so *before* the birth of Charles Edward? It's remotely possible the Margaret was his first wife, but the decade-long gap between the children makes it unlikely. (I note that William Henry's age was badly rounded in 1891; he was 20, not 15.) It's possible there were children in between who died in early childhood, but there are no baptism records available to suggest that.

Do you have any idea whether the three India-born children were sent home to England to school? It was common (at least among the wealthier, but not just), and if William had been widowed it might be something he did.

Anyhow, the Charles Edward birth certificate is the one I'd start with. It would give you a starting point for *that* Margaret, and if you could trace her consistently in England, it would indicate that the Margaret mother of the older children was a different one. And you'd be back where you started! :-D

Hold on, I'm being slow -- two children named Charles?

It does look like the Charles born in India was deceased by 1881.

edit - duh - it was the death record you posted.

So the second Charles was named for him. Not uncommon.

So ... the three children on the discharge papers would be the surviving two from India, Louisa and William Henry, plus the newborn Charles Edward born in Kent.

I know what you mean, I'm always getting confused between the many generations of ancestors called William Reeve, but naming patterns are always useful to make it slightly easier (only slightly though!).

No idea about the Indian born children being sent home, don't know much about this side of the family, sadly. I purchased William Henry's Indian birth cert in the hope Margaret's maiden name would be on there, but no such luck!

and yes, that's what i'd gathered, death of wife and child probably close in time, poor guy.

If you send for this birth cert you wiil have the maiden name of the mother....

Armed Forces BMD details
Registration event: Birth


Name: REEVE, Charles
Mother's maiden name: Not available before 1966
Regiment: 55th Foot
Place: Peshawar
Country: Indian Subcontinent
Year: 1872
Volume: 1087
Page: 9

Record source: GRO Regimental Birth Indices (1761 to 1924)