Hi All
I'd be very grateful if anyone has any suggestions for finding out more about some Boswell family members please?
The 1891 census shows three caravans, at New Road, Merthyr Tydfil. Frederick Boswell (b. c1840 in Cheshire) and his wife Charlotte (b.1838 Howe) lived in the first with their daughter Maria (b.1874, Wellington Shropshire). The second caravan housed Lloyd Roberts (b.1856 in Bulith) his wife Annie (b.1861 Neath) and his brother Lewis (b.1871). Frederick's other daughter Alice Maud (b.1868 in Dudley) lived in the third and final caravan on the street with her husband Henry Watts (b. 1861 Treorchy) and their children William, Annie and Richard. Their other daughter Charlotte lived in the first caravan with her grandparents.
I am keen to find anything I can about these people, especially who Frederick and Charlotte's parents might have been, and what Charlotte's maiden name was.
I'm also interested to know about their work - Frederick is listed as 'Hawker and Stall Keeper', his wife Charlotte as what appears to say 'fancy foods-keeper' with son in law Henry as a 'swinging boat keeper'. Even more intruigingly Lloyd and Lewis Roberts are both listed as 'showman'. Can anyone offer some advice on where I might find out about what they did, which circus/fair they might have been performing with, or exactly what a 'showman' might have done?
It seems likely that given that they were living in caravans and from the births of them and their children seemed to have travelled around, as well as the Boswell name, they might have been Romany. Can anyone suggest anywhere I might find out some more information about Romanies in Wales around this time?
Thanks for any help!