Just an example of how frustrating family history research can be.
My great-grandmother was a Milner. I was confident I had traced all her (4) siblings because her daughter Ethel gave me a list of them over 20 years ago and I'd tracked them through all the censuses, birth records etc.
On the 1911 census her parents show themselves as having had 5 children - all still living. So far, so good.
Last week, by sheer fluke, I was contacted by Ethel's daughter-in-law. She has a photograph of a man and on the back it says "mum's brother Tom". (Mum being my g'grandmother). She also has a book dedicated to great-aunt Ethel by "Uncle Tom". Except there wasn't a Tom on the list Ethel gave me.
I've searched high and low for a Tom to no avail. My first thought was that he must have been born and died between censuses but the fact that he was alive when Ethel was born rules that out, also that he was old enough to have bought her a book.
Great-aunt Ethel was the last surving member of her generation when I 'interviewed' her. And she died a few years later.
This one is likely to become one of those things that nag away at you for ever.
