Wysall

[Towdlass]

Right Shirl, I have had a look and this chap was married in Basford in 1919 and had a child in 1924 also in Basford. So I would think it not very likely that he actually would be my grandad. I must admit that when I was looking at it I did get quite excited as he is an engineer of sorts and that's what my grandad was described as. But I have checked E.Rs for various years during the 20s and my Edward is living at 11, Beeley Street, Sheffield during tat time.
If you find any other possibilities please let me know. The truth is out there and I'm hoping that I'll come to it eventually. My thoughts are that my Edward was already married. Why else would they live together for all those years and not get married. They must have known that they wouldn't be getting married as my gran was known as Stevenson for all those years and gave her children that name too. I have this idea that he perhaps left a wife and possibly a family and he might have gone back to them in 1931. As an engineer he might have come to Sheffield looking for work. All pie in the sky as I have no idea what their story really was.

Towdlass

[Towdlass]

Can I just mention that I was born in Sheffield and lived just around the corner from Beeley Street for the first 24 years of my life. So I know the area and Sheffield very well. I didn't leave until the age of 48. Beeley Street is, as you say, just off the city centre. There are also one or two large engineering firms around this address. I have been in contact with them to ask if they have an archive section or any way of being able to retrieve a list of employees for this time. (Faint hope I know) Only one of them bothered to answer and they did actually do a search for me but didn't find anything
I also knew my gran for many years before her death in the 1970s. Why I never asked her about her life I do not know but then she probably would not have told me the truth. They were very secretive that age group weren't they?

[shirl100]

It's a pretty good brick wall, but there must be a clue somewhere! I will keep having a look round.

Shirl

[Towdlass]

Oh thank you. I do appreciate it. I have eliminated a lot of people. I never would have believed that there could be so many men named Edward Stevenson. A lot seem to have been coal miners so can be eliminated straight away. I think the mechanical engineer might be the biggest clue to being on the right track or something along similar lines.
He did exist so he must be findable, mustn't he? 

[Annie65115]

Ah, apologies for trying to teach you to suck eggs re districts of Sheffield!

Engineer -- hmm - do you have all the birth certs for his children, does it say the same on them all?

[Derbysderek]

I think you might forget the Wysall connection............on the basis that I have found three of you children in Eccelsall Bierlow Sheffield.....
Alwyn Stevenson 1916
Wilfred Stevenson 1918
Georgina Stevenson 1921................all three with the same mother..Mother's Maiden name was TOULSON...............you'd need one of the three Birth Certicates to get the correct details...but it seems fairly clear that these are the children of Edward Stevenson and a lady..for which there appears to be no marriage................otherwise its one colosssal co-incidence!!!!

Get back to me if you thin i'm on the right track.

Derek

[Towdlass]

No you're right Edith Annie was my gran. The children were Margaret, Alwyn, Wilfred and Georgina. I do have all 4 birth certificates and Edward is described as being a mechanical engineer on the last three but on Margaret's (the first child) his occupation is Independent Means.
I don't think that you can have read the previous posts Derbysderek. The Wysall connection I explained was a tenuous possibility going on the names Alwyn, Wilfred and Stevenson. Alwyn and Wilfred are not family names on my grans family tree so thought they might be on Edwards. I found all three of these names in a family which were based in Wysall and so I was trying to see if there might possibly be a connection. I have gone down so many dead ends and have been looking for so many years that I am pretty much down to desperation methods. I explained that my gran and Edward were never married despite having four children.
It just seemed possible that there might be a relative of the Wysall family who might have moved to Sheffield looking for work possibly.
I do appreciate all of you who are trying to help me in my search and there is absolutely no need to apologise Annie65115. There was no way you could know that I was from Sheffield. I was really only trying to give you as many facts as I could to help you to perhaps think of possible solutions. I have a lot of the answers should you need to ask any questions where Sheffield is concerned. that was what I was trying to explain.

[Annie65115]

OK, I doubt I will be able to come up with anything else that you haven't already considered, but I guess one of the reasons that we use RC is in the hope that a fresh pair of eyes might spot something that we've seen so many times, we no longer notice it. So here's a few thoughts just in case anything might be helpful.

I see Edith Anne was v much a local girl; her family lived a short walk away from Beeley St in one direction and in 1911, Edith was working in a place a similar distance in the opposite direction. I suppose you've ruled out all the possible Edward Stevensons in Sheffield? ---- Including, of course, those who seem to have Edward as a middle name? And, of course, the Stephensons?

You say Edward was of "independent means". So had he inherited something? Have you found any Stephenson wills? Then during the war he was, or became, a mechanical engineer. So I presume he was working on the home front - I wonder, did he try to sign up but be turned down through ill health or something? Maybe he went back to work (had to go back to work) simply because of all the vacancies in industry caused by the disappearance of so many men to the front. Why had he stopped work before then? And when?

Ilkeston was a mining area but as you will know, there were no coal mines on the west of Sheffield. Sharrow was an area of factories and workshops, I believe largely to do with the steel industry. Men working in the steel industry usually had a particular job title specified eg grinder, blade forger etc (as far as I know!)  It sounds as though Edward had a different skill set. Where did he learn this? Was he from an engineering family or was he an educated man from a comfortably off background who had learnt a trade in college rather than on the shop floor? The different options would give different pictures of the type of background to search for. I'm picturing someone from a middle class family, who has been educated to skilled professional level, got some private income so has been able to stop working, then goes back to work when the times require. (I could be completely wrong of course!) In this case, maybe not from the class of worker who would normally marry one of the local barmaids (apologies to your granny, no offence intended, but we know there wasn't a lot of fluidity between classes). I wonder if he met her when he went for a drink in the hotel in which she worked! --- That might suggest either that he was local, or that he was a traveller staying in said hostelry -- a salesman??

You say you've looked at the ERs. What about things like Kelly's directories? I have the 1938 one for Sheffield but it sounds as though that would be too late for your search! It does state occupations of the householders, maybe you could get a bit more detail?

School registers for the children? Any info there?  (hmm, probably not due to the 100 yr rule)

It's perfectly possible, of course, that Edward did indeed have another family elsewhere and might even have split his time between them. I'm not sure you could rule out someone simply because another woman was having their babies in the same timescale    He wouldn't be the first, if that were to be the case.

These are all just musings, it would be lovely if any were to be of any help but probably not!

[Towdlass]

Hi Annie,
Great to have another pair of eyes looking at this for me. As you say, when you've been looking for so long it is possible to overlook something. You've made quite a few suggestions there that are worth thinking about. I am very grateful to you. Let me just put forward a few of my thoughts to see what you think.
As you mentioned my gran did work at the Cambridge Hotel near the city centre. I have found out that there was an engineering firm on the opposite corner of the road from the hotel. Perhaps Edward worked there? There was also another engineering firm on Division Street which is not too far away from the hotel and it was called C & J. Stevenson. I have spent some time trying to look into their family tree in the hope of finding an Edward but couldn't find one.
The fact that on Margaret's b/cert in 1913 he is described as of Independent Means I thought might be because at that time she didn't really know what he did for a living. The address given on that certificate was Rangeley Road which is in a totally different part of Sheffield than I ever knew my gran to live in throughout her life. The house at 11, Beeley Street was just a terraced house but on 3 levels. I have seen a photograph of it and it doesn't look to have been anything other than pretty basic so I don't feel that there was much money there. However, if he was keeping two families going that wouldn't be surprising, would it? My gran was a grafter and worked all her life and I know that she had part time jobs, cleaning etc when my mum was little. My mum also told me of trips to the pawn shop before she went to school in the mornings. She went to St Matthias school but I can't find any registers for that school even on Sheffield Indexers site.
I have been told that as a mechanical engineer he could have been exempt from call up. As the kids were born during the war - 1916 and 1918 - this tended to make me think that might be true. There was also a family named Stevenson who lived on Sharrow Vale Road or Pomona Street (can't remember which without looking back at my notes) he was an engineer and I did have a look at his family but couldn't find anything.
I haven't really ruled out the fact that he might have been Sheffield born. When the family disappeared from Beeley Street between 1930 and 1932 there doesn't appear to be a death for an Edward Stevenson around that time in that area. If he was from Sheffield where did he go? I thought that if he worked locally and drank in a local public house it was unlikely that he would have moved far but how to find out. I made a list of local streets and tried to get my hands on a Kelly's directory for that time frame but they are like hen's teeth. I asked my local library if they could ask Sheffield library for the loan of one and I would even look at it in the library so it wouldn't leave the premises but they said no.
My gran married in 1934 and the chap she married actually lodged with them in 1930 so Edward could have moved out. Perhaps as he was unable or not inclined to get married so she decided to go with someone who would marry her. Who knows. My mum herself married the following year so my gran might have felt it was time to try to secure her own future. The workhouse was still very much in existence at that time and people feared that they might end their lives there, so not an unreasonable decision if that was the case.