Marguerite Patterson Huntley

[RobinC]

I am looking at Marguerite Patterson Huntley who was born in Lewisham in 1888 and have found her in 1911 where she was visiting the Bucklands who lived at Milton House, St Leonards, Mortlake.

What is confusing me is that Marguerite is listed as being both a cousin and a visitor on the census entry but I cannot find any connection between the Bucklands and the Huntleys as from what I can see, Marguerite only had uncles.

I haven't posted the census reference as I'm not sure if we can do that for the 1911 census.

[Mutley]

Yes you can post the reference for the 1911, the PN and SN is enough.
It would be advisable to do so in this case as Ancestry have transcribed Marguerite as a Buckland.

It seems she is single as is Mabel Clark the other visiting cousin.
By rights they should be the children of one of Frank's married sisters but....

I have five children staying with me at the moment. They all regard themselves as Cousins, they all have different surnames.
Three sisters married and each had a child. One of the sisters had a child with an unmarried partner and one of the children is the offspring of a partners child. I am not sure that is much help but I think it is Frank you need to research rather than Marguerite.

It does get complicated!

[RobinC]

As far as I am aware, there is no link between the Bucklands and the Huntleys (or Websters, which was the maiden name of Marguerite's mother.

I'm wondering if they were actually related!

[RobinC]

I forgot to mention that Marguerite disappears after 1911 as there appears to be no marriage or death registrations for her.

[Peter Goodey]

What's the census reference? (The National Archives; RG 14/xxxxx/yyy)

What definition of 'cousin' are you using?

The OED for example includes

A collateral relative more distant than a brother or sister; a kinsman or kinswoman, a relative; formerly very frequently applied to a nephew or niece

or even just

a term of intimacy, friendship, or familiarity.

You often come across such vague, non-specific use of 'cousin' in classic literature eg Jane Austen.

[RobinC]

Class:*RG14;*Piece:*3612;*Schedule Number:*152;*

As for the degree of family relationship meant by the term cousin, I don't know nor can explain it.

[Mutley]

As Peter has said and I tried to explain the term cousin can be very loose.

There is an interesting marriage entry on FreeBMD for Sept 1847 at Greenwich.
On the page, as well as several others, are:
Buckland Thomas
Huntley Charles
Patterson Esther Margaret

I wonder if there is a connection,
I know my children have a real job to sort out their relationship with my dad's cousins family, all of which are producing children through several generations. 2nd cousins, third cousins. once removed or twice removed...... "Oh forget it! we are just 'cousins'".

Then again, many of us grew up with aunties and uncles that were just friends of our parents and their children we knew as cousins so you may be right and there is no connection at all.

What about Mabel?

[RobinC]

Esther and Charles married each other as the record is amongst Ancestry's London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921 collection.

I haven't looked at Mabel Clark yet but seeing as there was a Thomas Buckland on the same page, there could be a "friendly" relationship rather than a family one.

I have just looked and Thomas Buckland married Mary Hills 3 days before Esther married Charles.