Niece to daughter in 10 years

[Nicolina]

unfortunately Lincoln Archives are closed until middle December, for maintainence, or else you could have nipped across to search the Parish records, so buying a copy of the certificate seems to be the only way to get to the bottom of the puzzle (at the moment). If Edith was the illegitimate daughter of one of Hannah's sisters then a certificate, most likely, will not give a father's name whereas there is always a chance that he'd be named in the PRs.
I've had a wonderful vision of Musson's Pride.

[pennydog]

Looking at Hannah, with her parents in 1861 RG09 2350 19 31 (crown copyright/care of TNA)

She has 2 sisters:- Sarah & Eliza and 2 brothers:- Robert and John (appologies lostinspace if you already know this) and her father is also a police constable.

[Heather Barford]

Maybe it was as simple as the sister filling in the form and ticking daughter or maybe the wrong box or column being ticked happens all the time these days with form filling so why not in the past?