Hi everybody



I'm hoping some kind person will have a look at the PRs in Bury to help me out .



I am searching for the man [or more probably men] in the life of Amelia Willingham.



Amelia gave birth to three children prior to wedlock and we have the dreaded blank space in the certificates for all three!!



2 June 1875 she gave birth to Florence Ann in Rougham

31 July 1879 she gave birth to Alberta Phillis in Rougham

26 August 1881 she gave birth to Lionel Ophir in Thingoe Unionhouse in Bury St Edmunds.



Because they are so well spaced, I suspect they have different fathers.



Florence Ann's father is the most important, being the key to my puzzle, and the missing link.



However the names Lionel Ophir are intriguing. Not the most common.

Why on earth did she name her child with those names, when the family is inundated with Williams, James, Johns, Josephs and Mary, and Susannas.

At the time of the 1881 Census the only Lionel living in Bury St Edmunds in 1881 is Lionel Partridge, a Retired Hardwareman from Cambridgeshire, who lives at 7 Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds!! Amelia lives at No 34!!

At the time of the 1881 Census the only Ophir living in Bury St Edmunds in 1881 is Ophir Sturgeon, a Brickyard Labourer b 1838 in Rattlesden, Suffolk [the son of Ophir Sturgeon a farmer b c1815] who lives at 16 Newton Road, East Ward, Bury St Edmunds.



If someone could trawl through the PRs for those dates, I would be most grateful.



Best wishes