The evening before heading for the FRC I decided to go through all of Bert’s paperwork again and to my amazement I found a handwritten scrap of paper listing some Marelli children including a Nellie, but not a Helen or Ellen, giving the birth date as 7 May 1876 (see figure 2.1). How did I miss this? Also listed are:Ada born 23 June 1880 Matilda born 9 October 1882,  Albert born 26 December 1892,  Amelia born 28 August 1894,  William born 10 April 1896,  Amy born 8 February 1898,  Kathleen born 11 December 1900,  Winifred born 19 March 1902,  Henry born 9 June 1903 , Philomena born 11 May 1906.

At the bottom of the note is written ‘All Living’ but Nellie, Ada, Matilda, Amelia, Winifred and Henry are all crossed through. So whoever wrote this note had obviously crossed out the names as they died. Sadly there is no date for when the note was written.

Checking the signature of Martino on his naturalisation certificate and the writing of Albert, Brian’s grandfather, on his National Insurance details of 20 May 1912, we ascertained that it was probably Brian’s grandfather, Albert, who had written the information down.

Albert died in 1974 and I knew that Amelia had died in 1922. As I had searched the previous years I assumed the others must have died between these dates. I will now not only have to search birth details of the above but also deaths from 1922 to 1974 at some point.Needless to say this is assuming that Albert did the crossing out on the list! Also I would have to search for Matilda under her married name of Davies and of course check that the others had not married, but first I would take the easy option and look under the Marelli name.An aside: I phoned my mum, who was aware of my research, and told her I was going back up to the FRC and she mentioned that her mother, my nan, had never had a birth certificate.

Naturally I found this quite unbelievable and thought that Mum must be mistaken but took the month and year of birth and said I would look it up if I had time.For no apparent reason I began to feel unhappy with the search of deaths between 1901 and 1922 that I had carried out on my last trip to the FRC. I had been tired and might have missed something and it was preying on my mind.

Call it instinct but I knew I would have to check these dates again. My gut feeling proved right for on my next visit to the FRC I found another Marelli death – this time, shockingly, for Amy Marelli, Martino’s second wife, in 1912. What else would I find?I continued with my search until 1922 but found no more Marelli deaths so would need to check under married names for those marriages I already knew about. Also, if I could not find any more Marelli deaths for the others after 1922 then I would have to search for further marriages.It was then I thought about the earlier searches of Marelli deaths where I had started at the year 1880 looking for Rosa. Perhaps there were other children who had died. I decided to do a quick search from 1875, the year of Martino’s marriage to Ellen McDonald.

I found amazingly a Rosa in the last quarter of 1877, the same year as her birth. So the Rosalier I had already found is not the Rosa I thought she was. Time for another cigarette.I felt depressed with searching deaths and although I had birth dates for several other of Martino’s children these certificates were sure bets to find; I wanted more marriage certificates because they gave so much information. I chose to search from 1900 to 1920, using my marriage form, to look for the marriage certificates for Ada and possible marriage for Ellen/Nellie/Helen.I found only one during this period for Ada Marelli dated in the third quarter of 1902.

The marriages section wasturning into a battle ground and although I wanted to search further I was beginning to lose my focus. I decided to look for Ellen Marelli’s birth once more but I did not find her.An aside: I searched the final quarter of 1908 for my nan, Maggie Walker, but she wasn’t there. Mum must have given me the wrong date.Weary and perturbed I had to think of a way to find the elusive Ellen. Perhaps I should look in the Census for Martino?

I headed upstairs and was given instructions for searching the Census. (Information on searching the Census is given later in this chapter.)The only address I could remember was Homer Street. One of Martino’s children from his first marriage was born at this address, so as he married in 1875 I chose to search the year 1881. It took me ages to grasp how to work the film viewer with it spinning this way and that, and I searched through endless incorrect places before it dawned on me I was not reading the reference on each section.

Finally I found Homer Street and started at the beginning, as I could not remember the house number. Unexpectedly on the second page I found a family of Plummers living at 6 Homer Street: William, aged 35 and head of family, was a railway signalman born in Tooting, his wife Susan aged 40 was born in Melksham and their children Henry aged four, Albert aged eight and Amy aged 13 were born in Lambeth. What? Amy Plummer, Martino’s second wife? This is not what I expected at all. My goodness, they must have been neighbours of Martino or is it possible they had lived at the same address?I searched frantically through the surrounding pages looking for Martino but could find nothing of him. I printed off the page and as it was getting late and as I was desperate to find the Marelli certificate with the Homer Street address on it, I headed home.

At home I searched through all the certificates I had and located the birth certificate for Matilda born in 1882 at 6 Homer Street, one year after the 1881 Census. What did this mean? Could Martino have known his second wife as a child and watched her grow up while married and bringing up his first family? Possibly Martino and William were friends? In 1881 Amy’s father William is 35 years old, Martino was by then about 29 years old so it is feasible they could have been friends.I was beginning to understand that families moved constantly either to better or larger accommodation as required or to find work. Maybe William had moved for some reason and recommended Homer Street to Martino, his friend. I started to imagine that Martino could have been having an affair with Amy while his first wife, Ellen, was alive but I still did not know when Ellen had died or if she had died, and quickly dismissed this idea as Amy was only 13 years old in 1881.

I even considered the possibility that Martino could have been secretly in love with Amy while she was growing up, but hopefully this would have been when she was a little older.Of course it could have been just a coincidence that both families had lived at the same address but I personally would like to believe they were friends and that, although Martino may have known Amy, nothing happened between them until after his first marriage was over one way or the other. Not that I wished Ellen dead or anything, I hasten to add – the last thing I want to do is upset Brian’s ancestors especially as I am only just getting to know them. It is also interesting to note that the Plummers were not the only family living at 6 Homer Street. There were four other people living at the house, all listed as head of family, so it was most likely a lodging house.