You may remember my disappearing Florey family from earlier posts, and my attempt to track them down.  The Floreys were last seen living in Wateringbury at the time of the 1841 census, but I hadn’t been able to find any of them until Henry Richard Florey, my great great grandfather, turns up in 1871 living in Rochester. Where did the rest of them go?

I decided to follow his half-sister Jane first – I had her baptism record, and a possible marriage for her – and ordered the marriage certificate from the GRO.

Jane Elizabeth Florey and Alfred Pope were married on 6th April 1846 at Trinity Church in the parish of Maidstone, Spinster and Bachelor respectively, both being of full age and residing in Maidstone. Alfred’s occupation was listed as Labourer, and their fathers were James Florey (Labourer) and Richard Pope (Labourer). Witnesses were William Apps and Charlotte Myers.1

I still can’t find Jane in 1851. There are some Alfred Popes around, but none with a wife Jane. I did find a death for a Jane Pope in 1847 in Maidstone2 – could this be her? Should I go ahead and order the certificate, or change tack and try and find her brother William?

(When I came to write this post yesterday, I couldn’t find Jane’s marriage certificate. I knew I had put it “somewhere” but obviously I had not filed it away correctly, nor did I note down any of the information in it. So, I spent over an hour searching through all my papers and binders before I found it, and several other certificates. Moral of the story – FILE promptly and carefully!)

  1. England, marriage certificate for Alfred Pope and Jane Elizabeth Florey; 06 Apr 1846, Maidstone; citing 1846 Jun [quarter] 05 [vol] 405 [page], General Register Office, Stockport.
  2. “England & Wales, FreeBMD Index: 1837-1983,” database, FreeBMD (http://freebmd.rootsweb.com/cgi/search.pl : accessed 14 Mar 2011), death entry for Jane Pope; citing 1847 Jun [quarter] Maidstone 5 [vol] 244 [page].