iron moulder

[rleach]

hi my gr gr grandfather thomas howard was a iron moulder i am trying to locate what rea of england he would likely have come from i hope  his occupation is a clue he came to us in 1862 so the time frame would hve been mid 1800

rosmary howard leach

[Carmela]

Hi Rosemary,
Almost impossible to name a place as being most likely. By the mid 19thC, industries involving iron work were everywhere. If you knew what sort of thing was made where he worked it might help to narrow the field,  i. e. was he an iron foundry worker, ship builder, steam locomotive builder? If all you have to go on is "iron moulder",  he could have been employed in any number different industries.
The chief iron foundry city was Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, known as "the birth place of the Industrial Revolution". And of course there was Sheffield with it's many metal working plants, making almost every metal object you could imagine.

People involved in that kind of work often moved to where the work was, so even if it was possible to find out where he was working before he emigrated to the US, it is unlikely that he would have been born there.
 
Sorry, I can't offer more help. I think it would be best to follow the usual genealogical steps from US census records, citizenship, to ships' passenger lists and try to work backwards that way. But with a common name and if you have absolutely no other info, it's not going to be easy.
 
Keep posting on RootsChat. If you can come up with any other info that miight provide a starting point, post it and someone will help you.
 
Good Luck,
Carmela

[ShelaghG]

Hi Rosemary

Do you have any idea how old he was/when he was born?  I have access to an index of the 1861 census for Sheffield and there are several Thomas Howard's on it:

3465 45B Thomas Fox HOWARD 24 YKS Sheffield
3465 45B Thomas Henry HOWARD 1 YKS Sheffield
3471 24B Thomas HOWARD 50 YKS Sheffield
3482 5 Thomas R. D . HOWARD 7 YKS Sheffield
3487 135 Thomas HOWARD 9 YKS Sheffield
3490 116 Thomas HOWARD 35 YKS Sheffield
3497 111B Thomas HOWARD 83 YKS Sheffield
3499 99B Thomas HOWARD 28 LIN Thoresbay
3511 105B Thomas HOWARD 30 YKS Featherstone

If any of these look likely you could ask if SKS could look up the Piece/Page number for you.

HTH - Shelagh

[Rod In Sussex]

Rosmary,

The Victorian industrial midlands of England would be my favorite, but there was also the remains of the older Iron industry in Sussex. Although bringing in Iron to work, those in Lewes for example, thrived (or at least survived) into the 1950s under the ownership of several generations of the Every family. I do not think this will be a quick quest unless you are very luck.

Rod

[donna-paul]

rosemary

i have a gt grandfather and a gt gt grandfather who were iron moulders and they came from hornchurch in essex in the late 1800's although i have not established where they were working yet its another place to search !

donna-paul

[Andi R]

Hello

As a Mechanical Fitter well I used to be, I served my apprenticeship in a BSC Foundry where Iron was cast.  The term moulder would be a time served person who, made the moulds that the iron was cast into

The moulds were usually made in two halves, a wooden pattern would be placed into the "cope" (bottom section) damp sand would be packed around the mould, a "runner" and a "riser" placed onto the pattern the sand is tightly packed into the mould, then the "Drag" is placed on top of the drag and this is packed with sand.

The mould would be split and the pattern, runner and riser removed leaving an impression, the two halves then reassembled and fastened together, the molten iron then poured into the "Runner" untill it has filled the mould and the iron has filled the "riser" ( the riser serves two purposes, its where the air inside the mould is forced out, and once the riser is full then the mould must be full.

This is a quick overview of the process, there is a bit more to it and a lot of this process was taken over by the "Continuous Casting Process". 

So an Iron Moulder would not be specific to one area however it would be to in groups of places around the country such as Workington, Cumbria,  I can't think off the top of my head of others but steel wasn't just produced at Sheffield, but in a number of places, including Workington.

Any thats what an Iron Moulder does, and where you get a iron being moulded you get:  Foundrymen, Pattern Makers and Dressers

Anyway hoped that helped

Andrew

[Andi R]

Hello again

Right give me a few mintes and I'll get back with where I think the main areas are, as that was the original question

Andrew

[alfindit]

Hi,
My 2nd great-grandfather was an iron moulder. He made stove grates, which were in very high demand at the time (1850-1900). Several foundries in Rotherham appear to have specialised in this one item, Clough Works, Feram Works, and Effingham Works to name but 3. The Effingham Works was purported to be the largest in England to make stove grates. Cast iron was in very high demand, especially after the 1851 Great Exhibition, where incredible pieces of cast iron were displayed. Cast iron pieces would have been made all over the country I expect, so this may not be of any help. It may be your ancestor made the moulds - which were designed by others with different skills - rather than dealt with pouring the iron itself; I am still getting to the bottom of this in my research.
Cheers,
Al

[MollyC]

Somewhat belatedly to the original question, 6 miles down the Don Valley, Rotherham was the heavy end of the Sheffield steel industry.  The stove grate works was spelled Ferham, which is literally a made-up district name meaning iron town.  Another major product was railway wheels and axles.