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I am trying to unravel the mystery surrounding my great-grandmother, Ellen May Collin. Ellen was born in the workhouse at Newmarket in January 1854, but does not appear on the GRO or the IGI. When Ellen married, Her father's name was given as George Collin, apparently the villge policeman in Soham, where Ellen was brought up. I cannot find him on the GRO or IGI either, though he may have been born before 1837. On Ellen's marriage certificate her father is described as a 'cottager'. I now know that Ellen's mother was Sarah Collin, daughter of John and Rebecca Collin of Soham. Ellen always said that her grandmother brought her up, but Sarah was living at home in 1861, and there was another daughyter, Eliza, also born at Newmarket Workhouse, in 1858. Ellen's grandmother Rebecca Collin, eventually moved to Bacup, Lancs, and died there. From my research I have discovered that Rebecca, whose maiden name was either West or Reece/Rees/Reese or Rous. moved to the same place as her husband, John Collin's, younger brother Matthew Collin and his family. Ellen also moved to work in Manchester to be near her grandmother. Rebecca died in Bacup in August 1875, and Ellen later moved to London, marrying Henry Prout, with whom she had enjoyed a long courtship, in 1882. Their elder son, Ernest Henry Prout, a violin teacher and violin maker in Hounslow, Middx, was my late grandfather. Their younger son, Charles, emigrated to Canada and started a successful motor business in Owen Sound, Ontario. What I would really like to know would be who exactly was Ellen's father. Eliza may have had a different father - who knows? There are a lot of strange coincidences between Ellen and Eliza. Both gave birth to twins, both had musical children, and both had daughters called Florence. Sue Edwins