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Thanks

I looked. No sign.

No I havent I shall look, Thanks for that

No I havent I shall look, Thanks for that

I don't have access to ancestry at home but have you tried looking for Thomas Nicholson under Railway Employment records?

Thanks for all that info guys, it gives me a lot to think about, I double checked and its definatly a copper miner.

marriage in Dec qtr age 20 fits with census April 1881

death certificates are often wrong depending on who registered the death

I would be tempted to say birth between October 1859 and December 1860 - she could easily have married on her 20th birthday

there was copper mining at Alderley Edge, approx 12 miles from Droylsden

There was apparently a copper mine in Coniston, then Lancs now Cumbria which closed in around 1880. I had a look at Ulverston but nothing obvious that I could see.

http://www.cumbria-industries.org.uk/copper.htm

Vera

I'm no expert on Lancashire or Cheshire, despite being born, brought up, and still living in the middle, Derbyshire, but I ain't aware of any copper mines in the area. There was a copper smelting industry in Lancashire, with the copper coming from Wales or Cornwall, so maybe Margaret was born in one of those places.

Margaret Nicholson nee Cunliffe only appears one one census that we are sure about, 1881, where it says she is born Droylsden, but I agree with others that this might just be a bit of carelessness on the part of the enumerators. So maybe she was Welsh or Cornish.

Droylsden and Ashton were both close to huge railway networks so the job of a pointsman is no surprise and as someone said, people who worked on the railways found themselves in all sorts of places - my gg grandfather Thomas Holland had children born in Crewe, Gorton, Uppermills and Earlestown. And probably a few others in between.

Now, if Margaret lied about her age on marriage, and on the 1881 census, but her age at death in 1883 was true, she might have been born in 1863, in which case she might just be the daughter of this couple, or at least of the husband:

CUNDLIFFE, John Head Married M 38 1843 Coal Miner
Ashton
Lancashire VIEW
CUNDLIFFE, Mary Wife Married F 33 1848
St Helens
Lancashire VIEW
CUNDLIFFE, Thos Son Single M 12 1869
St Helens
Lancashire VIEW
CUNDLIFFE, Jane Ann Daughter Single F 9 1872
St Helens
Lancashire VIEW
CUNDLIFFE, Martha Daughter Single F 7 1874
St Helens
Lancashire VIEW
CUNDLIFFE, Joseph Son Single M 4 1877
St Helens
Lancashire VIEW
CUNDLIFFE, John Son Single M 1 1880
St Helens
Lancashire VIEW

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Piece:
3774 Folio:
67 Page:
31 Registration District:
Wigan

Civil Parish:
Hindley Municipal Borough:
Address:
2, Moor House, Hindley County:
Lancashire

Nope, not getting anywhere with Margaret Cunliffe. Sorry.

Sounds as if that could be true, would be great if i could find out which of the ages on the documents is the correct oneThere are only Margarets with fathers called john from other areas so it would just be a wild guess . I almost feel like I want to give her a family....How complicated, I have 8000+ on my tree and no one person has given me this much trouble, regards to you

on the marriage certificate Thomas is described as a pointsman not a hatter. this could be why he is out of his birth area if he was working for the railways. They did tend to move around a bit. Margaret gives the same address as Thomas on the marriage so probably moved into the area as people did to save money on having the banns called.

Marraige cert in dec 1880 says she is 20. Census 1881 says 20 death cert in feb 1883 says 20 years old also. So she could have lied at some point

Possibly she did, wish she hadnt though, she is really difficult to trace with any proof.....

This is correct area - did she lie as to age so as not to be older than her husband?
Births Jun 1859
CUNLIFFE Margaret Ashton 8d 479

Added:
This one might have died in 1863:
Deaths Jun 1863
Cunliffe Margaret Ashton 8d 355

Have to get dome sleep now but thanks everyone !!

It is Ashton under Lyne That is where most of the Nicholsons come from

They were both out of their birth are as Thomas was born in Droylsden also. It does say Droylsden on the 1881 census when she was married to Thomas Nicholson

For information, if she were born in Droylsden, it is near Ashton-under-Lyne (Not Ashton-in-Makerfield), Audenshaw and Dukinsfield, and then Denton, Hyde and Failsworth.
If Droylsden was just an assumption, what was she doing out of her birth area?