Hello!
I wondered if I could call upon your powers of deduction to help me find out more about my great-great uncle, Frank Smith.
I can find him on censuses when he’s a kid, and I know some bits and pieces about him in later life, but nothing in-between.
This is what I know for sure:
Born: 4 December 1866, Walls Quarry, Brimscombe, Gloucestershire (from his birth certificate - can I post a scan of it?)
1871 census: Avening, Gloucestershire, 4yo - Scholar
RG10/2641/16/7
1881 census: Avening, Gloucestershire, 14yo - Farm labourer
RG11/2550/110/10
April 1940: his older sister Elizabeth Mary Smith leaves him some money in her will, and the probate calendar entry describes him as “Frank Smith, retired chief steward”.
Between 1881 and 1940, and thereafter, I’m stumped!
This is *potentially* him on the 1939 Register in Lambeth, given that the birthday matches the birth certificate:
RG101/0347F/004/41
It would also make sense in the wider context of most of his siblings having moved to London. Within the household is a lady called Blanche, but I’m finding it hard to find a marriage entry which makes sense.
More broadly, several of his siblings are just [first name] Smith with no middle names to distinguish them when searching - I’d be interested to hear how you tend to approach this, and verify that you’ve found the right one!
