My George Arthur Wood married Louisa Jane Langley sometime between 1891 and 1901. The 1891 census shows him as a "Coachsmith". He emigrated to Canada around 1886/7 when he was about 18. In 1901 he was in Hamilton City, Ontario, Canada married to Louisa and his occupation was a "coachman".
I ran across some of the Royal Household records awhile back, but I don't think I found anything on him. I will look again to be thorough.
The fact that he moved out of the country at age 18 suggests that he wouldn't have had much time to
work as a coachman.
I just called my MIL and she tells me she is pretty sure she was told the ancestor was a footman to the queen. The reason my MIL believes that her ancestor worked for the queen is that there is a pair of ceramic "royal doulton" figurines passed through her family. Her mother said they came from my MIL's grandmother. George A Wood is that woman's father.
George did have a brother named Richard born in 1873 in Lydd, Kent, UK. His sister Kate was born about 1870 and that's all the siblings he has as far as I know. I don't have any info on Richard, so perhaps he was the footman and the figurines didn't pass through his line.
My MIL described the figurines: the man was in britches and a white wig, the woman had a fancy dress with a bustle and there might have been a dog. These figurines are in the possession of her sister, she doesn't have a photo of them, and she says that for all she knows her mom made up the story about the footman!
So I think maybe my next line of attack is to find out about the brother Richard.
Thank you for all of your replies!
I have been an avid family historian for a few years and wish I had found this forum earlier!
