What happened to Mary Coppen?
Q
My great aunt, Mary Margaret Coppen, was born in Boston in 1916. In the 1939 Register, she was living with Ernest Wright at 1 May Avenue, Thornton, Bradford. They married in 1974, but Ernest died in 1976 and Mary married again on 23 October 1976 in Stockport, to George Cyril James. George died on 15 August 1977 in Macclesfield. But what happened to Mary?
Lynne Ludlow
A
When someone disappears from the records, you need to consider the possibility of a remarriage. There is, for example, a Mary M James who married a Dennis W Bennett in 1981 – she could be ruled out (or in) by obtaining the marriage certificate from the General Register Office ( www.gro.gov.uk/gro). There is also the possibility that Mary emigrated, or an outside chance that she is still alive at the age of 106! If, for any reason, ongoing records used the name Mary James (with no middle name), then the search will be extra difficult because of how common the name is.
Also, you might have assumed that Mary died after her second husband, but what if she died before him? Findmypast ( findmypast.co.uk) has a parish burial record for a Mary Margaret James on 1 March 1977 in Cheshire and Ellesmere Port (Jan–March 1977, Vol. 35, 0025). If this is your great aunt, then she died less than six months after she married George. Her given birthdate is 27 August 1913 (not 25 August 1916). Mary had been 22 years younger than her first husband Ernest. Did she at some point add a few years to her own age to make that union seem more respectable?
I found a second possibility for Mary’s death on Family Search ( familysearch.org). The cremation of a Mary Margaret James on 29 June 1979 in Hollinwood Cemetery, Oldham, Manchester (cremation number 36608), features in a collection of Oldham cemetery registers (1797–2004).
Ruth Symes