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Thanks, Reggie. The first marriage was witnessed by my great-grandmother Mary Ellen Mitchell and her friend, a Mrs Heyworth.

The details you have are correct for the second wife, and she is a widow on her death certificate so William died before her.

We know William was born in the Rhondda area of S Wales. He came north during a lockout in the Welsh coalfield in 1921/2, and during that time he married my grandmother in Skipton (the marriage you mention above). The marriage appears to have been one of convenience and William left about 6 months later to go back to Wales in the autumn of 1923..

The likelihood is that at some time after the second marriage in London William and Jemima went back to where he originally came from, or somewhere close to his birthplace. There wouldn't really be any motivation to end up in the particular village where Jemima died unless he had family there.

Jemima's death in Ystrad Rhondda in 1963 was notified by a W H Evans, described as 'nephew' who lived just a couple of streets away and seems likely to have been either the son of William's sister, or his brother's daughter's husband (gets a bit convoluted). The nephew is less likely to be a blood relative of Jemima's as she came from Mansfield, in S Yorks.

This W H Evans seems to be the best link with William's birth family, but the common name, name variants, and lack of census information post-1911 are making it very difficult to find the right one, given I don't know his birth year.

What leads you to think he was born in Wales?

Marriages Mar 1923 (>99%)

Thomas William Wade Skipton 9a 69
Wade Florence E Thomas Skipton 9a 69

Who witnessed the first marriage?

Is this the second wife?

Death

Name: THOMAS, Jemima
Registration district: Pontypridd
County: Glamorganshire
Year of registration: 1963
Quarter of registration: Oct-Nov-Dec
Age at death:70
Volume no: 8B
Page no: 539

Did William die before.............or after..........Jemima?

Thanks for getting back to me. Yes - I have both marriage certificates. William's father is John Thomas, a miner, deceased by the time of the first marriage in 1923, which doesn't help much!

There's also a discrepancy in William's age on the two marriage certificates, which is interesting, although I don't know what the explanation for it could be.

On the first certificate his age on 5 March 1923 is given as 29, and on the second on 15 Nov 1931 it is given as 39. It is definitely the same person (the second certificate describes him as 'divorced husband of Florence Edna Thomas, formerly Wade', who was my grandma) but the age on one of them must be incorrect. This means that I'm having to look at all potential William Thomas's born between about 1890 and 1894 - given that ages given in census records are often a year out anyway.

Hello Andrea, have you obtained either of the marriage certificates to confirm who his father was?

William was married twice, first to my grandmother Florence Edna Wade in 1923, and second to Jemima Piper (b Mansfield 1893). At the time of the second marriage on 15 Nov 1931 they were living in Wellington Road, Wealdstone, London. At some point I think they went back to S Wales, possibly Ystrad Rhondda, but I'm struggling to connect William up with the right birth family and would be grateful for any suggestions or information.