Alice Ascroft?

• Birth Notes
  • Christian name of John Fearnley's first wife is probably Alice, since only Fearnley female death at Wigan before 2nd marriage is an Alice Fearnley.  Twins Alice and Betty Fearnley, born abt 1849 are alive in 1851 census living in father's uncle's household.
    
    Matching to Free BMD marriages to Alice in Q4 1843 matching John Fearnley marriage quarter we have:-
    
    Surname  First name(s)    District  Vol  Page 
    
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Marriages Dec 1843   (97%)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Ascroft  Alice    Wigan  21 613   
    EASTHAM  Alice     Wigan  21 591   
    Marsden  Alice     Wigan  21 583   
    RICHARDSON  Alice     Wigan  21 615   
    Turner  Alice     Wigan  21 605   
    Turner  Alice     Wigan  21 575   
    Walker  Alice     Wigan  21 572   
    
             
    Free BMD suggests 5[79]- for John Fearnley marriage, image very smudgy.   I have eliminated alternatives as follows:-
    Going by ages of children in the 1851 census, there was an earlier marriage around 1845 or earlier. Two earlier marriage references at Wigan appear for John, Q3 1845 and Q4 1843. The only Fearnly death between birth of Ellis, Q4 1849 and marriage to Ellen Atherton in Q4 1850 is recorded in 1850 Q1 for Alice Fearnley. Thus forename probably Alice provided the Alice that died was not one of a pair of twins Alice and Betty or Becky Fearnley recently born.
    
    The 1845 John Fearnley marriage index in Free BMD leads to 5 males, 4 females. None of the females shown is named Alice but 1 female may be missing or 1 male mistranscribed. The 1843 Free BMD index search result is incomplete v21 p5[7 or 9]?.
    
    1843 Q4 generates 7 brides forename Alice. Of these Alice Eastham is p591, Turner p575 and Walker p572. satisfy the [7 or 9] theory.
    
    Eastham page has a 3 brides and 3 grooms so probably complete. Walker page  has 4 brides and 4 grooms so probably complete. Turner has 3 brides and 4 grooms, which suggests a bride missing. No luck so far.
    
    Moving to p613 Alice Ascroft has a groom missing, p615 Alice Richardson is complete, p583 Alice Marsden is complete and p605 Alice Turner is complete. This makes Alice Ascroft the strongest possibility.