Success after 60 years of Looking (for Grandpa's "Aunt Mary")

 Back in 1962, I interviewed my relatives to learn as much genealogy as possible. One key person was Mom's father Richard Samuel Ing, who was born in London, England on 18 Sep 1881. 

Among the people he mentioned was his aunt, Mary. So I added her as a sister to his father Thomas George Ing, Over the years I kept trying to find her. Grandpa remembered that she had married a man named Stratford or maybe Stafford, and that they later moved to Africa, When she died she left some money for Thomas, but he died before he received it. 

When I decided to document my research using historical records as sources, I was frustrated that I could not find ay historical record of Mary Ing born about 1840 in London and married to a Stafford or Stratford,

Over the years I discovered that Thomas' mother Ruth Reading had a previous marriage and that Mary's sister Priscilla was a child from that marriage, I was able to find Ruth Reading's marriage to John Hitchcock, and three children from that marriage, all born in London :
Maria Ann Hitchcock born 24 Oct 1817
John Hitchcock born 11 Jun 1820
Priscilla Amelia Hitchcock 8 Sep 1827 

This family was sitting quietly "on the back burner" when I received a message from someone else interested in the Reading family, 

Once my attention was fixed on Ruth and her children, I noticed that she had a daughter named Maria Ann Hitchcock and a daughter named Mary Ing, Hmmm....

I did some more research on Maria and found her marriage to James Stratford, on 4 September 1847 at St Marylebone, Middlesex, England. Well!!! The clincher was when I found duplicate records for Maria and James Stratford in FamilySearch, The duplicate records included her death "17 January 1887 in Uitenhage, Cape Colony" (This is the current Cape Province in South Africa,) So it all fit together. Grandpa didn't seem to realize that her maiden name was Hitchcock, and not Ing. (After all, this was someone had heard his family mention, but he had never met her.) 

So what did I do with this knowledge? I merged the record for Mary Ing, born about 1840 into the record for Maria Ann Hitchcock born in 1817. I now have a clearer picture of the family of Robert Ing and Ruth Readng.

One last question for now. If Maria died in 1887 and her half-brother Thomas George Ing died in 1907, why did it take 20 years for him to be informed that she had left him some money? Maybe the fact that her brother's surname was Ing rather than Hitchcock, and that he lived half a world away? And how hard were her executors looking? Maria's husband James pre-deceased her, but she was survived by her stepson James for a few months. Maybe that complicated things, The rest of Grandpa Ing's story about "Aunt Mary" checks out, once we fill in the missing pieces.

Genealogy provides us with some of the best puzzles.