Married twice...

[jjsebba]

Hi
I'm newly researching my gg grandfather (Rupert Francis Keeling) and have hit a brick wall. He appears to have been married twice (unless there was someone else with the same name and same DOB).
He was married once in 1877 (Mary Ann Trueman) and a child was born (my g grandfather Wetherby Keeling) in 1881.
Rupert then appears to have married again in 1882 (Annie Stoner) and there are far more records (census mostly) of him in a relationship with wife #2.
I can't find much information on wife #1 including the couple being together (since they were married) in the 1881 census which I would've expected.
One clue is that Wetherby has the middle name of Trueman, which I expect came from Mary...
I don't have a full details of wife #1 but have gone by her maiden on the child's birth certificate....
I have looked for a death record or probate to prove wife 1 died before he married the second one but haven't found anything particularly definite. Does anyone have any suggestions of what I could look up to get some answers?
I don't have access to local UK records unfortunately otherwise I would definitely have gone down to the local parish/library to see what I could find on paper or archive! thanks.

[Dundee10]

I can't find much information on wife #1 including the couple being together (since they were married) in the 1881 census which I would've expected.

Rupert and Mary are in Ilkeston with their first son William in 1881.

Class: RG11; Piece: 3327; Folio: 6; Page: 5

[Pam Downes]

Rupert and Mary are in Ilkeston with their first son William in 1881.

Class: RG11; Piece: 3327; Folio: 6; Page: 5

That's who I found, and believe to be the correct couple, but as I found them quite easily I did doubt myself. Though I suppose two of us could be wrong.
The way jjsebba worded his/her post he/she had found them in 1881, but not together.

I believe I've also found Weatherby/Wetherby in the 1891 census, and even possibly the 1901, but am awaiting further details before posting anything more. No sense in posting stuff which might be wrong.
Pam

[Megan Roberts]

There is a family tree on Ancestry "Langfords of Portsmouth" which doesn't have any certificates but does reference the various BMD indices, censuses and a business directory. That tree says that Mary died in 1881 and suggests that it may have been connected with Wetherby's birth. Wetherby does not appear with them in any census..

Ancestry show that in 1909 he was living in Hallam Sheffield - electoral register.

[Pam Downes]

Thanks for that, Megan. I never think of looking at family trees.

I thought it significant that I found a likely death for Mary in the same quarter and registration district in which Wetherby's birth was registered.

Pam

[Lesley Robertson]

FreeBMD shows a birth for Weatherby Truman Keeling registered in Basford, December quarter of 1881.
For the same quarter, they also have the death of Mary Keeling aged 24, same place. I suspect that she either died in childbirth or the effects thereof, but you'll need the death cert to confirm.
It was quite common back then for a widower with one or more small children to re-marry quite quickly - they were more pragmatic than us.

I've just seen Pam's post #5.

[Sandyhall]

a copy of this marriage cert. will tell you if he was a widdow or not

Annie Grace Stoner
Registration Year: 1882
Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec
Registration district: Nottingham
Inferred County: Nottinghamshire
Volume: 7b
Page: 518
Rupert Francis Keeling

[Sandyhall]

1891 Census has Rupert and Annie with another son William Henry born 1878 Ickeshone, Derbyshire, England.

Sub registration district, Duddeston
Sub Schedule Number 25
Piece 2419
Folio84

[Sandyhall]

Probate record for William Henry Keeling leaving money to Wetherby Trueman Keeling retired Civil Servant