I believe that the solution to my riddle is that there was a generation left out of the oral history told by my great grandmother.
I have looked at an 1805 marriage in Stretham, Surrey between James Wicks and Mary Chitty but repeatedly discarded it because of my great grandmother’s story and the certainty that Mary must have been a Russell. Finally – and mostly because of a lack of other possibilities – I decided to research this marriage and search for the Chitty…
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