Hi All

maybe there's a simple answer to this and i'm missing the obvious, but on the 1851 census for my grx3 Grandfather John Rodgers is living with his parents Joseph & Isabella Rodgers, his 2 sisters & 3 brothers, Also living with them is a Thomas Rhodes aged 14 brother in law (to the head of the household Joseph). How can Thomas be Joseph's brother-in-law?? his wife Isabella'a maiden name is Elliott!! I've found Thomas & his parent's Thomas & Emma on the 1841 census & 1851 all the same except Thomas Jnr not home (obviously) still cannot work out any link.

Regards

Martin

maybe isabellas mother remarried thats why thomas as a different name to hers

The term in law was sometimes used to mean a step relationship, so a brother in law might have been a stepbrother.

After looking at the ages of John rodgers parents & Thomas Rhodes parents, the Rhodes are roughly 10 years older than the Rodgers, feel it could be likely that Emma Rhodes could have been Elliott (same as Isabella Rodgers) & that Thomas is her nephew??

Have you considered that Joseph Rodgers may have had a young sister who is married to Thomas Rhodes. There are marriages in 1851 of girls 12 years old. Age restrictions did not come in until the early 1900s.
Look through the 1851 census for Rhodes with no first name, you could find a girl who is a live-in-servant.

on the census page you can see Thomas is listed as Unmarried, but looking closely at it i'm not sure it says brother-in-law???

Writing is a little un-clear but it definately say "brother" it's just the subsequent word that un-clear. The pallots babtism index does not have any record of thomas' mother being an Elliott but I accept that they are not complete