I was 29 years old when Martin Carthy encouraged me to do some research into the life of Marina Russell I am 63 this year and finally completed the story and solved the mystery of her final resting place.
I've traced Marina alive and well living in Bincombe in 1911 There is no doubt it's her. There is a burial in Bincombe church of an 83 year old Mrs. Russell but her name has been put down as Marion and that was in 1915. There are no Marions any where in the area before this one entry. It's an obvious mistake and it's got to be Marina. No wonder we couldn't find her. She was christened Mary Anne Sartin, and if her children told the Doctor who wrote out the death cert. 'She was known as Marina but her real name was Mary Anne' it is not beyond the bounds of credibility that he heard it as Marion. She had moved to 241 Ridgeway so that explains her dissappearance from the Upwey cencus. She went back to Bincombe where she was happy with her husband and raised some of her children. It's so obvious now! It never occured to me that she might have moved from Upwey after the Hammond Brothers visited her. Their description of her led me to believe that she was frail and would not last long. In fact she was good for another 7 or 8 years, God bless her.
I finally stand a chance of standing in front of Marina's grave after several decades of wondering where she is resting, and just saying thank you for the songs, and the wonderful reward I received from my years in Dorset, dedicated to her memory. I am contacting the Russell family descendants to tell them the news today.