The discovery evidenced in this letter from Martin Hill is exactly the sort of research that I was hoping for, proving me wrong about a guess of a marriage between a George Bailey and an Elizabeth Wrench in 1901 in Leek, and indicating through his personal research, that George Bailey, son of Timothy and Mary Ann, actually formed a union with an Elizabeth Cocker. I am very grateful for his material and, with his permission I have reproduced his letter below:
‘Firstly, I want to express my appreciation of your booklet, The Family Tree of Viney Boswell. As a great-great-grandson of Viney’s granddaughter, Mary Ann Boswell, your research efforts have provided me with a significant chunk of my Gypsy ancestry. Thank you for saving me from the ‘mission impossible’ of trying to figure out the various names and numerous locations of George Boswell/Hill/Bosshill senior’s siblings!
Naturally, my personal focus of attention was very much placed on page 19 of your Viney Boswell booklet. Whilst the vast majority of my research turned out to be supportive of your family tree charts, there were a couple of differences. The first is that Timothy Bailey, George’s father, was baptised twice, and although the baptism date you have given of 11th October 1846 is correct, Timothy had initially been baptised on 31st December 1841. The second is that although a George Bailey did indeed marry an Elizabeth Wrench in Leek in 1901, George, son of Timothy, was partnering another Elizabeth, Elizabeth Cocker, with whom he had already baptised two sons at St. John the Baptist church in Buxton.’
In addition, Martin also noted that Elizabeth Bailey, born in Staffordshire in about 1884, married John Lomas on 17th February 1912 at New Mills, five years after her sister, Louisa, had married John’s brother, Edward Lomas. I am so grateful for these corrections and additions in trying to push the family research of these significant families forward.