Ellen Jane HOOKINS (Tree M)

Ellen Jane is one of those people whom I have had difficulty in keeping a track of. She is elusive in some Census records, has interchanged the usage of her Christian names, and has called herself HOOKINS at one point when she clearly wasn't!
She was born in the September quarter of 1867 at St James, Tregony near Truro and christened in the village church of St Cuby with Tregony. Her father was Reginald Hewis SNELL and her mother Elizabeth. She appears in the 1871 Census where the family name has been recorded as SUELL and surprisingly during her 4 years of life she is shown to be already 6 years old! She is living with her parents and 4 siblings - 1 older and 3 younger - at 46 Fore Street, Tregony. I am however unable to locate the family so far in the 1881 Census.
In the June quarter of 1885 Ellen married Joseph KNOWLES in the St Austell Registration District and by the time of the 1891 Census she is living as Jane with her husband, who was a Tanner, and 2 children - Philip 5 and William H 3. Their address was at Bosillion Road, Grampound. Here she is recorded as being 23 years of age which now coincides with her birth year.
By the time of the next Census 10 years later, Ellen, now called Jane, is recorded as being just 9 years older at 32, has taken the HOOKINS name although not yet married to 43 year old James HOOKINS, and they are living at 1 Willow Plot in Plymouth along with Lucy, aged 6, William, aged 5, James, aged 1 and Helmit, aged 14, who is the William H recorded in the previous Census when she was still with Joseph. Further investigation reveals that Lucy has both the HOOKINS and KNOWLES name against her birth registration, William had been born in Stonehouse in in 1896 (and is sometimes known by his 2nd name Reginald! - Ellen had also signed the birth registration as J HOOKINGS when she registered him as Reginald William!), James Timothy had been born in 1900 at 1 Willow Plot, and Helmit was born as William Elmot KNOWLES in 1888. All of them however are recorded as HOOKINS for the Census. Ellen Jane's other son Philip was with his grandfather at this stage. It also transpires that James and Ellen had another child James who was born in 1898 and died the same year.
The following year on 5th July 1902 she legally became HOOKINS at Devonport Register Office. She was married in the name of KNOWLES although her father's name was erroneously entered as Reginald KNOWLES instead of SNELL!
On 24th October 1903 their first legitimate child, James, was born at 2 Willow Plot, so they must have moved next door as other children, Harry (Henry) and Violet Mabel were subsequently born there in 1905 and 1907 respectively although Violet was sadly due to die the year after her birth in 1908.
In 1911 the Census lists Ellen Jane as Janey and she is living at 1 Cambridge Street, Plymouth with husband James and Henry, John and Philip but later that year Ellen Jane died. This left widower James with Henry (5), Reginald (16), James (11), John (8) and Philip (25). Helmit had already married by 1911 and was again using the KNOWLES surname.
James married again early in 1914 to Elizabeth Ann DWYER whose 42 year old husband had died in 1908. He had been a Plumber in the Royal Navy and, at the time of the 1901 Census they had 4 children aged between 4 and 14. James had been a Private in the Royal Marines and it was quite possible that the 2 families knew each other quite well.
So Ellen/Jane/Janey SNELL/SUELL/KNOWLES/HOOKINGS/HOOKINS was quite a challenge although some issues still remain unresolved as yet.