there is evidence so far that martin had been married prior to marrying margaret. how many children did he have with margaret as the child george is 3 in 1881. it may have been that there never was a first marriage, my ancestors are from the same area and there were many mysteries surrounding them which only managed to be resolved when later census returns were released. my great great grandfather had married in coningsby lincolnshire in 1873 and they had a daughter, but in 1877 when he then had my great grandfather, he was with another woman living in doncaster as man and wife and his legal wife was still in lincolnshire, she died in june 1877 and my great grandfather was born in november the same year. the daughter born 1873 was brought up by her maternal family and I don't think there was ever any contact with her father again. he went on to have 11 children with his common law wife and they lived together as man and wife for nearly 50 years. when the 1911 census was released, emma, my great great grandmother, did not put how many years she had been married but william, my great great grandfather is so far untraceable on the 1911 and he didn't die until 1915, legally their children were never legitamised as there is no record of any marriage, but the daughter went on to marry an army major from a wealthy family and travelled the world, her 11 half brothers and sisters lived and died in todmorden. don't rely on the official records, people were secretive.