Is he the dad?

[BlueSavannah]

Hi,

I am currently looking at the life of William Edward Fletcher born 1872 in Heanor, Derbyshire. He married Elizabeth Gray in Mosborough, Derbyshire in 1892 and they are living there in 1901 at 6 Duke Street Court with their daughter Ethel.

2 doors away is a widow named Eliza Wallace who was with her 2 sons Edward & William. A 1900 snippet in a local newspaper stated that Eliza had admitted to stealing coal with William & Elizabeth.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...5?pId=19273510

Elizabeth Fletcher died aged 38 in August 1907 in Heanor. William was present and registered the death.

In 1911, widowed William is boarding at the home of Eliza Wallace, now in Chesterfield. She is again with 2 sons, William from the previous census but a 7 year old son named...Fletcher Wallace! I purchased the birth certificate (Nov 1903) for this child and there is no father named. Nor is any father named on the baptism entry for him.

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageview...03?pId=5722220

I am looking for any opinions on whether I should, or should not, assume that Fletcher was fathered by William Fletcher whilst his wife was still alive?

Eliza Wallace died in 1918 and on the 1921 census, Fletcher and his older brother Edward are living at the 1911 address but William Fletcher is not there. The head of the household on this census appears to be Eliza's younger brother and his family. William is elsewhere in 1921 and has a widowed woman doing housekeeping for him.

What are anyone elses thoughts on this?

Thank you, Claire