Not a brick wall, but two paths through the woods.
Once in a while a trip down the research rabbit hole delivers delightful results.
My 3G grandfather, William Kent, was a gamekeeper, born in Bucklebury, Berkshire in 1801. I was able to trace his movements, with his wife, Elizabeth Nokes (sp), and their three children, from an estate in Tilehurst, Berkshire in 1841, to one in Bere Regis, Dorset in 1851. Their son Edward, my 2G grandfather and also a gamekeeper, was married in Dorset in 1854, his marriage record confirming that he and his father were gamekeepers.
Elizabeth died in 1853, and from then William's life was more difficult to track. I found a record in the 1861 census, showing a William Kent, 57, gamekeeper, born in Bucklebury, Berkshire, living in Lyminge, Kent. The age gives a birth year of 1804, three years younger than William, but I could not find another William Kent born in Bucklebury around that time. The record stated that he was married, and the only other person in the house was an Ann Wood, lodger and laboring woman. It does not indicate that she was his wife however.
In the next census, there was a William Kent, 66, born in Bucklebury (birth-year 1805) living in Hothfield, Kent. This one was a lodger and laborer, but the other occupants include two gamekeepers.
Despite frequent searches over several years I could find no other records of a William Kent born in Bucklebury around 1800, so I held on to the notion that he had wandered off after Elizabeth's death, finding work where he could. I imagined a lonely old man, gradually losing his ability to get work as a gamekeeper, and eventually slipping into a decline.
But then, the research wowee! I found a record in the 1881 census of William Kent, 75, born in Bucklebury, living in Bere Regis.[1] An under gamekeeper, he was married to a woman called Harriet, 55, born in Framfield, Sussex. I confirmed that by finding the marriage record, dated 1857, three years after Elizabeth had died. It made sense that he had remarried and stayed in Dorset all those years, and that the man in Kent was someone else.
But there was still no record of any other likely William Kent for the years 1861 and 1871. In fact the Bere Regis 1871 census[2] has no record of the Kents. The Bere Wood Keeper's Cottage, occupied by William earlier, was occupied by the Bugg family, father and son both gamekeepers.
So I decided to rest with two parallel narratives: either William moved to Kent, or he remarried and stayed in Bere Regis.
But recently, not satisfied with my two separate tracks, I set off down the more-research rabbit hole once more. My next step was to explore William's second wife and see what I could discover about her. In the 1841 census she was living with her parents, Daniel and Sarah Rogers, in Fletching, Sussex. Harriet, 14, was the oldest of 5 siblings. I couldn't identify her in 1851, but the 1861 record blew me away. Harriet was living in Bere Regis.
And my two separate tracks became one. William had a second life after Elizabeth's death after all. While William had taken a gamekeeper’s position in Kent, Harriet - 35, gamekeeper’s wife - had remained in the gamekeeper's cottage in Bere Wood. She was listed as head of the family, a family which consisted of a daughter, Sarah Edith, 2, born in Bere Regis; a nephew, John Kent, 17 and a gamekeeper, born in Hampstead, Berkshire - and thus presumably William’s nephew; and a nursemaid, Emma Hunt.
The 1871 census added to this new picture. Harriet, with Sarah Edith, now 12, and a second daughter Harriet J., 6, were living in Lyminge, Kent. Since daughter Harriet was born in Lyminge they had clearly been there for at least six years, with William just a few miles away. When William moved on to Hochfield, Harriet remained in Lyminge with the girls.
By 1881 William and and Harriet had returned to Bere Regis, where William died in 1887. In 1891 Harriet was living with her younger daughter’s family in West Wickham, Kent.
So, much to my surprise, both tracks I had mapped out for William's later years came together in one path, on which his second wife and their two daughters clearly accompanied him. Not the lonely old man that I had imagined.
[1] https://www.opcdorset.org/BereRegis/1881BereRegis.htm[2] https://www.opcdorset.org/BereRegis/1871BereRegisEd4.htm