From: mjsbeavis@gmail.com   
      
   On Thursday, 3 May 2018 06:29:51 UTC+1, Steve Hayes  wrote:   
   > I've veen battling with one of the most intractable genealogixal   
   > problems I've come across for a long time.    
   >    
   Having looked at the 1841 & 1851 census images there are no mistranscriptions,   
   at least not on Ancestry.  In 1861 & 1871 the unmarried sisters Sarah SIMS (36   
   & 47)  and Mary SIMS (30 & 40) are still living at West End, as they were in   
   1841 & 1851.  In    
   1881 Mary 47 is visiting her niece Lydia MITCHELL who is probably the niece   
   Lydia MART from 1861 and 1871.  In 1891 Mary is 60 and the Aunt of Lydia PUGH   
   in a household with MITCHELL stepchildren.  Apart from 47 in 1881, that is   
   consistent (+/-1) with    
   Mary's birth between April 1829 and March 1830 and her ages of 10 in mid-1841   
   (which may have been erroneously rounded down) and 22 in April 1851.   
      
   FamilySearch has Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers for Mary Sims,   
   Birth Date 26 Feb 1826, Christening 3 Dec 1826, Wirksworth, Derbyshire, Father   
   Samuel Sims, Mother Elizabeth Sims.  [Derbyshire, Church of England Parish   
   Registers & England    
   Births and Christenings].  The images are only available at an FHS, not free   
   online.   
      
   That discrepancy might suggest  the death of the Mary born 1826 prior to the   
   birth of the Mary in the censuses.  There are two such deaths in 1826/7 but in   
   Chesterfield and apparently naming non-Samuel fathers.  It makes no sense that   
   Mary's parents    
   knocked 3 or 4 years off her census ages.   
      
   Ancestry has the 1826 Mary in a Sims family tree but gives no further details   
   of Mary except for the 1841-1871 censuses.  That tree has Samuel 1781-1829 and   
   Elizabeth 1790-1855, with children born between 1814 and 1830, the last one   
   after his father's    
   death, none of which have I attempted to check or verify.   
      
   Ancestry has [Derbyshire, England, Church of England Burials]  Samuel Sims,    
   Age 47,  Birth Year 1782, Burial Date 9 Dec 1829, Wirksworth, Derbyshire,   
   which differs from the 1788-1838 in your query.   
      
   Just in case your SIMS family may have become nonconformist shortly before   
   1830, see also http://belper-research.com/summaries/baptism-index.html and   
   related pages.   
      
   Perhaps half the problem is you yourself Steve, for being far more numerate   
   than your original data providers!   
      
   Martin Beavis   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)