In the 1861 Census, Thomas Ham is shown as living with his "wife", Mary Ann, and his daughter, Ann, and his cousin, James. I can find no trace of a prior marriage to a Mary Ann nor does Ann appear to have been baptised or had her birth registered. Thomas did marry Mary Ann Nash in 1865 but there are two oddities in the marriage entry: Thomas's father is shown as Henry instead of John (Henry is the name of his brother and also his uncle) and Thomas is shown as a widower but I can find no trace of any previous marriage. However, his occupation (hairdresser) and that of his father (weaver) are correct. I suspect that Thomas and Mary Ann lived together for some years before they married and I have assumed that Mary Ann was Ann's mother. He may have said he was a widower to obscure the fact that he had an illegitimate child.