1901 census - Richard

The starting point information : your grandparents Richard and Ada Cooper born about 1870 from Darwen.

According to Ancestry on the 1901 census there were 85,429 Coopers in England.
9,280 Coopers in Lancashire.
361 Coopers in the parish of Darwen.

There were 6 Richard Coopers born in Darwen, all living in Darwen but luckily they have different birth years - (1898, 1887, 1873, 1838, 1883, 1859).

There was only one Ada Cooper in Darwen.

So lets look at the details for Ada.

RG13,3921,123,24 Blackburn, Darwen 14
64 London Terrace

Richard Cooper 28 Corn Merchant Foreman born Darwen
Ada 28 born Darwen
James 4 born Darwen

James birth year would be about 1897 from the census. Looking at Lancs BMD there are no James Cooper registered in 1897 but 3 registered in 1896 and 2 registered in 1898.

Next looking for the marriage details.
On Lancs BMD there is no marriage.
On Free BMD
Sep 1895 Blackburn 8e 688
Richard Cooper + Ada Clapham

Looking at the coverage on Lancs BMD I am guessing their marriage may have been at Darwen St James as that year for that church has not been indexed. So it is a case of looking at the parish records for this church. (Preston record office - when I next visit).

I am going to leave Ada until I look at the Clapham tree.

This leaves us with Richard, from the cesus his birth year is about 1873 and he was born in Darwen. Looking on Lancs BMD at the decade 1870-1880 there is only one Richard registered in Darwen.

1873 Richard Cooper Darwen Blackburn D/58/57

Now lets go back 10 years to 1891 and see if we can find Richard.