Heh -- you have Joseph's marriage?
Name: Joseph Ruffels Year of Registration: 1863 Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun District: Headington County: Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire Volume: 3a Page: 735
+ Martha Messenger, it seems.
And yes indeed, it looks like she did not survive to the 1881:
Name: Martha Ruffles Estimated Birth Year: abt 1844 Year of Registration: 1873 Quarter of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep Age at Death: 29 District: Headington County: Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire Volume: 3a Page: 376
Interesting ...
Name: William Joseph Ruffels Year of Registration: 1874 Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun District: Headington County: Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire Volume: 3a Page: 896
-- an Ann Messenger is one of the brides on the page.
I wonder whether this birth:
Name: Mary Ann Messenger Year of Registration: 1849 Quarter of Registration: Jul-Aug-Sep District: Headington County: Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire Volume: 16 Page: 62
is both the Ann in that marriage and the "May" (it is a very poor copy and it's quite likely Mary) in the 1881 census?
Huh! When one of my grx2 grandmothers died, my grx2 grandfather wasn't permitted to marry her sister -- agin the law, apparently. To deter spousal homicide?? So he just shacked up with the sister, also widowed, and they went on to have numerous children, including my gr-grfather. Through GR, I've met a descendant of the first wife, so we're only half-cousins -- but unlike most such cases, all our ancestry is actually identical anyhow!
So if your Francis's father married his deceased wife's sister, Francis would have half-siblings, but descendants from them would have ancestry identical to yours too.
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When you're searching at Ancestry, you have to outsmart the Ancestry transcribers. ;)
I think that actually because the name was unusual, the search engine found "Frances Ruffells" for me all by itself when I searched for Francis Ruffles.
Otherwise, you gotta search for things like Fran* Ruf* -- Francis/Frances are often mistaken, even by the people themselves I think, and who knows whether a Francis was calling himself Frank? And Ruffles might have got transcribed with one "f" -- or even as Russell.
You gotta be wiley. I realized early on that my Moncks might only be found by searching for Mouck and Morch and Monoh and Morek, but it was a couple of years before I realized there were several hundred Hells among whom I should maybe be looking for my Hills. Then I tried variations -- and sure enough, there was my Ernest Hill in 1871 as Earnest Hile. But I checked the image, and there, in the most perfect copperplate I'd ever seen in a census page, was indeed Earnest Hile. So it was the original copier, and I can't blame Ancestry that time!
Oh, and always use the +/- function for birthdate. People mostly show up as a year younger than that year's birthday ... and tend to get younger as they get older. That won't help when Ancestry has transcribed someone who was 3 months old as being 3, or 37, of course ... I wondered about a pair of my ancestors, aged 50 and 55, having a 45-yr-old daughter, til I checked the image and saw she was 15.
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To Kathryn B. Thank you so much - I think I'm a bit of an amateur at this!!
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And in 1871:
Name: Frances Ruffells Age: 6 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1865 Relation: Son Father's Name: Joseph Mother's Name: Martha Gender: Male Where born: Garsington Civil Parish: Garsington Ecclesiastical parish: Garsington Town: Garsington County/Island: Oxfordshire Country: England Registration district: Headington Sub-registration district: Wheatley ED, institution, or vessel: 3 Household schedule number: 54
Alice Ruffells 3 Frances Ruffells 6 Joseph Ruffells 7 Mame Ruffells 5 months Martha Ruffells 26 Joseph Ruffels 27
-- there may have been a stepmother take over between the censuses!
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On a really quick search at Ancestry, wouldn't this be him?
Name: Francis Ruffles Age: 16 Estimated Birth Year: abt 1865 Relation: Son Father's Name: Joseph Mother's Name: May Gender: Male Where born: Garsington Civil Parish: Garsington County/Island: Oxfordshire Country: England
Occupation: Ag Lab Registration district: Headington Sub-registration district: Wheatley ED, institution, or vessel: 3
Alice Ruffles 13 Florence Ruffles Francis Ruffles 16 George Ruffles 7 James Ruffles 4 Joseph Ruffles 37 Kate Ruffles 2 May Ruffles 31 Minnie Ruffles 11 Susan Ruffles 6 William Ruffles 17
Matches the specs for the one in 1901:
Name: Francis Ruffles Spouse: Clara Birth: abt 1863 - Garsington, Oxfordshire, England Residence: 1901 - Garsington, Garsington, Oxfordshire, England
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Can't sem to find any trace before 1901 of Francis Ruffles born c. 1862 - I think - in Stokenchurch, Oxon. Can anyone help?
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