The Whitcombs

"Time Patrol," 6.

The Danellian tells Everard:

"To us, it was a matter of record that one Charles and Mary Whitcomb lived in Victoria's England. It was also a matter of record that Mary Nelson died with the family she was visiting in 1944, and that Charles Whitcomb had lived a bachelor and finally been killed on active duty with the Patrol. The discrepancy was noted, and as even the smallest paradox is a dangerous weakness in the space-time fabric, it had to be rectified by eliminating one or the other fact from ever having existed. You have decided which it will be." (pp.51-52)

Patrol records include accounts of both actual and prevented events. The way time travel works in this series, it is possible that a Charles and Mary Whitcomb appeared in 1850 to live and die in Victoria's reign whereas Mary Nelson died in 1944 and Charles Whitcomb, unmarried, remained in the Patrol. The Danellians think that it would be a problem to allow these two sets of events to occur in a single timeline. Everard has brought it about that the Whitcombs who appeared in 1850 were the Mary that was presumed killed in 1944 and the Charles that had joined the Patrol but then left it after only one mission.