I've been trying to find a marriage record for Thomas Short and Mary Ferguson for a little while now, and I've failed spectacularly. They are (as far as I can tell) my great-great-great-great-great grandparents. Thomas was born in Northumberland, some time between 1760 and 1790, and Mary was born somewhere in the border area between England and Scotland around 1790. I'm afraid I can't be much more specific than that.

Mary was living in Coldstream in 1841, with most of the couple's children, while Thomas was living in Glendale, Northumberland. He was an agricultural labourer, and I believe their separation was purely because of work, but feel free to tell me I'm wrong. Mary died in 1849 in Coldstream. Most of their children emigrated to Australia and it is from these emigres that I know their parents' names. Australian death records, in a stroke of antipodean genius, record the names of the deceased's parents and the death records for these people all say "Thomas Short and Mary Ferguson".

The other important twist is that Thomas isn't always called Thomas... bear with me... in some of the sources I've found for this family, Thomas is called William. Madness, I know, but that's what's apparently happening. This phenomenon has been witnessed so far in two different sources from opposite sides of the world. One being the death record for Mary Short, their daughter, in Coldstream in 1882, and the other being a reference to the obituary of John Short, who died in Yackandandah, Victoria, Australia in 1891.

I could dig out lots of records, but I honestly don't think that will help at this point. Pretty much all I'm after is some assistance with finding some sort of marriage record for these two.

The parameters are: somewhere in the borders, before 1811, Thomas (or possibly William) Short and Mary Ferguson getting wed in some fashion. Could be church, could be registry office, could be some sort of weird ritual overseen by a goat in a dog collar, I don't really care.