I woke this morning from a fever dream of walking down the Royal Mile in the sunshine, wandering in and out of used book and record shops, knowing the pubs are open for a swift pie and pint. I don’t know where these fantasies come from.

***

A year ago I was researching family history stuff. Despite having a lot of free time in the intervening months, I have pretty much done nothing about it since then. I remembered it today because I spent most of the afternoon on the phone to my sister and my niece talking about it, and about ways of getting more information in the form of gossip and stories. The problem I was stuck on when lockdown hit was:

My ancestor, James Morton, was born 24 April 1845 in Carrington Street, Parish of St. Peter’s, Nottingham. James was the illegitimate son of Ann Morton, who was the daughter of William Morton and Catherine Lane (m. Nottingham St Mary’s 16 February 1816).

 

James Morton is described as a cabinet maker, and had at least two children: George Lawrence Oliver Morton and Percy (James?) Morton. I am descended from George. According to the 1871 and 1881 census, and George LO Morton’s birth certificate, James was married to Elizabeth Faulkes (various spellings, ch. St Luke’s Hickling, Notts. 21 Jan 1850.) However, on the 1891 census James is said to be married to ‘Emma’. I’m pretty sure Emma was a widow, born Emma Mills and her later married name was Emma Jordan, though I haven’t traced this fully yet.

 

My problem: I can’t find any record of James actually marrying either Elizabeth or Emma, and I can’t find anything to indicate Elizabeth’s death between 1881 and 1891. So either there is a problem with the records and I just haven’t found what I’m looking for, or there were shenanigans. My money would be on shenanigans.

I ought to get back to that.

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Music : another synthpop classic, from 1980. Martha and the Muffins : Echo Beach, one of many I associate with the jukebox in Potterrow Student Centre.