Forfarian and other contributors: thank you for your additional posts, links and suggestions. Yes, of course we have also researched wars and it's a big subject. I agree Shoults and its variants has come from abroad but it could have been well-settled in this country even as early as the Viking hordes, so I am not going to pin down the period in history when the name first appeared in the British Isles. There are two George Frederick Shoults's on that tree. One is born in Southwark in 1802. He was a son of Peter Shoults junior - a carpenter like his father. This George Frederick married Jemima Bicknell Back (interesting family by the way - long story!). Their son, George Barrett Shoults (born Webb Street, Southwark, 1837-D.1909) was a florist. George Frederick Shoults, his son (born 20 January 1862, Finchley-D.1926) was a florist, but I've got a document buried in the pile that describes one of the George Shoults in this family cultivating tomatoes: the Shoults Blaby tomato of Leicestershire. George Barrett Shoults is the man, as I recall. You can't even get the seeds now! George Barrett Shoults (1837-1909) married Mary Ann Greenhill (B.1837-d.Finchley, 1923) and it is their son, George Frederick Shoults (B.1862-D. 1 April 1926) who married Caroline Jane Fearnside at Marnoch. In answer to question what profession did Caroline have, I don't know. She is in the 1881 census for Marnoch but I have not been able yet to see a copy of that census. I am currently waiting to receive some letters from G F Shoults (1862-1926) and Caroline J Shoults, written to one of their children that might shed more light on the family. On subject of name spelling variants: here's an interesting one from Poland: Šolc. When pronounced it sounds the same as Shoults. So if we find a baptism or birth record for Piotr Mart͡ɕin Šolc (the Polish spelling of his name) in 1747, give or take a year or two, we shall be very interested to see how he might fit but we're very cautious about this sort of thing. This example is a good one to illustrate the point about begging to differ when it comes to the “right spelling” and the “wrong spelling”. No point in making a fictional tree which will mislead so many other people in their individual quests. This Shoults family is so large to navigate it's no suprise to me if I've actually made some mistakes in what I post here. I do my best to be accurate but a lot of the family papers are buried in boxes or somewhere stored and wading through it to find which one grew tomatoes is a task I can hardly face with enthusiasm! Eventually I will find it but I am working on a giant project at the moment and genealogy is a hobby, not an occupation for me. I had to edit this because I'd garbled this tree at the first attempt. It is so confusing to have two George Frederick and a George Barrett Shoults. I don't know where George Bicknell Shoults would fit in, I'd have to check where he is!
