The email has been sent but it may take a few days before I hear from her, the lady in question at Braintree R O is a part time worker, I will post the outcome.
Just an update. I had a reply from someone who works at the Braintree RO who stated that my Braintree contact was away on holiday. Still having had no reply 3 months later I have sent another email 20/5/2015 repeating my query which was, what parameters were used which brought up the "1894 Stebbing1 entry 368", no reply as yet. I'm beginning to think the search parameters might have been just "Theobald 1892 plus or minus a few years, there was a William Theobald marriage in 1894 in that area which could have confused the searcher. Unless a search in the Stebbing Congregational Marriage Registers 1893/4 finds the marriage of Kate Eliza Theobald aka Tibbles to William Hansell Robinson, I think my 2nd cousin and I are going to have to accept that Kate and William never married. Especially as the following has turned up: There is a baptism of a William Hansell Robinson on 27 June 1886 at St Stephen, Haggerston in the borough of Hackney. Parents William (a bricklayer, abode 10 Wharf Road) and Emma. This William Hansell Robinson was born on 31 May 1886. Obviously the 1886 William Hansell Robinson is not the William husband of Kate but perhaps his father is also a William Hansell Robinson, if so, being married to Emma he wasn't free to marry Kate. Of course it could be a different William Hansell Robinson, someone related to Kate's William, perhaps a cousin of some sort. I did have a trip down another path regarding a Kate Elizabeth Tibbles marriage registered 1892 at Watford Herts, 1892 being when my cousin and I thought the marriage would/might be. The entry in Free BMD didn't show anyone else on the page but in Ancestry there were two males on the same page, by researching the males in the 1901 Census I was able to determine that she married one of them, exit the Hertfordshire Kate Elizabeth Tibbles from the scene. By way of explanation, in the 1890s although the name was spelled Theobald in PRs and BMD certs etc, in the Theobald family bible the name was still written as Tibbles.
Don't give up Findem, put it away for a bit & let it pop up sometime & surprise you. "Tibbles"...perhaps this is how it sounded to Family who were not sure on spelling?
Probably trying to sell ice to an eskimo here, Findem, but are you now going to look for marriages under "Tibbles"?
We all have days we feel like this and I am now getting a stack of "put away until laters" as Wendy suggests, but it will help. You never know what pop up 2 years from now.
Actually that was the way the name of my earliest known Theobald ancestor, John Tibbles, was written in Chelmsford PRs when he married there in 1774 plus it was written the same way for all his children's baptism entries. So I guess that was the way the family pronounced their name to at least the 1890's.
Better late than never Philippa. By the way even if I accept my theory that Kate and William (my Kate and William that is ) never married I will from time to time still check on Free Reg. There's always the odd chance that they did marry in a parish, yet to be transcribed, somewhere in Essex (or elsewhere) but failed to register it. Perhaps someone will one day pick that parish to transcribe for Free Reg and Bob's your uncle. Puts me in mind of that cartoon entitled "never give up" the one with a Heron trying to swallow a Frog but the Frog has it's 'hands' firmly locked around the Heron's neck. In case anyone suggests it, I will also keep trying Essex OPCs although currently it doesn't have much of a database, nil in the areas I'm currently interested in
Flattery will get you everywhere Philippa. Had my wife been still here she would no doubt have dismissed courage and perseverance and put it down to pure stubbornness.
You must remember, Findem, that we women do use a dictionary which is ever so slightly different from the norm!!!!
I agree never give up. You can be like a terrier with a bone or you can put it on a back boiler for a while and then look with fresh eyes. I live in hope with all my back boilers.
I am a bit confused now, Findem. I can see this couple getting married in 1834 and having a son William Ansell Robinson born in 1836 in Goswell Road, Clerkenwell (from Quaker records on Ancestry). He's too old to be the William who was with Kate though: was that the generation before? 24 year old Wm Ansell Robinson (a florist) is with his parents on the 1861 census as I'm sure you already know. Twenty years later, this would seem to be William Ansell Robinson with a son William born about 1867: William A. Robinson, head, married, 44, auxilary [sic] letter carrier & house gardener, born Middlesex Goswell Rd., with son William aged 14, born Tottenham. In part of 2 Maury Road, Hackney in 1881. (RG 11/289, f.19, p.32) I haven't found a marriage for William senior or found him and his son on the 1871 census. Who was his first wife and where was she in 1881? (I think I see him later marrying a Harriet Elizabeth Holliday and having some more children with her; he can be found on the 1911 census in Stoke Newington, by then a widower again.) It is presumably his son, the William born about 1867, who is the one with Kate in 1911. Have you found William junior on the 1871 or 1891 census? Do you have a birth record or baptism for him? Was he definitely a William Ansell Robinson as well? Perhaps he had another first name (or even a different surname, if his parents weren't married when he was born?) It seems likely that this younger William is the one who was a bricklayer when a son William Hansell Robinson was baptised in Haggerston in 1886. Did this child survive, and if so where is he on censuses? Can a birth registration be found to shed more light on who his mother was? Sorry more questions than answers! Will keep looking for more pieces of the jigsaw . . .
All being well I'll go through the info on the Robinsons today, if not today tomorrow) and get a renewed perspective on it, this Robinsonresearch was carried out by my cousin and her daughter and sent to me a few years ago. The only part I checked for myself is the 1886 William Hansell Robinson baptism. By the way my cousin did remark that she had seen the William Hansell Robinson's name without the H.
I can't answer your question right now but the mention of Quaker's has me concerned, up to now I've not had cause to think of Kate's William having Quaker connections. Hope I don't have to go down the path of Quaker's I've no experience whatsoever of researching Quaker events.
I did contact the Quakers way, way back to see if I could get any info relating to my my maternal great grandmother Deborah Card nee Eve. Sometime after Deborah married my great grandfather she converted to the Quaker faith the rest of the family didn't. I wrote to the Quakers but they seemed unable to help and as it was on no great importance i didn't pursue it.
