David MILNER is waiting for his two wives to show up on the Shared Tree. A solitary blue hint kick starts a search.

David had two daughters with Mary EZARD. Rhoda Jane, the second girl, arrived on his 24^th birthday, married when she was seventeen, and died aged 21. Less than six months later, David buried his wife. He married Sarah HOGGARD in Filey towards the end of the following year. Born in Swanland near Hull, and fifteen years his junior, Sarah had a son they named David and a daughter, Adah Annie. David senior may have known a third child was on the way, but he died about six months before Sarah Mary was born. As a young man, David had worked as a tanner in Hull. When he moved to Filey he became a lodging housekeeper on the Crescent. Sarah kept the business going and was still active at the age of 78, assisted by Sarah Mary who was 37 and unmarried in 1901.

Ann McLAREN may have been enumerated twice when the 1861 Census was taken. Ann McCLAREN, aged 14 and born in Muston, is a domestic nurse for a sailor’s wife with two very young girls.  Anne McLARREN, 15 and born in Lebberston, is with her uncle “John Brambles JUKE” in West Street, Muston. She is described as a lodger and no occupation is given.

John William WHITSEY came from a family that may not have moved far from its Huntingdonshire heartland for generations. The First World War seems to have sent him up to Filey, possibly with the Hunts Cyclists. He married Elsie May CAPPLEMAN, daughter of “Jack Wraxter” and “Belle Taffy” CAMMISH, in 1918. Elsie went down to his place, had two children, and died in St Ives aged 44.  John lived for another 27 years; his death was registered in Huntingdon in 1967.

John CAPPLEMAN is a first cousin of Elsie May – and a grandson of David Milner senior (above). A new stone in Filey churchyard remembers him.