Oh the frustration!

[jbml]

Having established that one  of my family lines was wrong (due to assumptions I'd made on the basis of an error in a GRO certificate which has now come to light) I set about re-assembling it.

I found a baptism in the right name, in the right place, at the right time, and started following it back. Lots of entertaining roaming round north Somerset followed, including one line which took me back to the time of the Monmouth Rebellion.

This was FUN ... but something felt wrong. There was MONEY in this family. Apprenticeships with premiums of £63 and £80 in the 18th century. A wealthy miller with three further business interests listed in Pigots Directories for 1822 and 1824. Not to mention the suggestion that he was part-pwner of two or more ships playing between north Somerset and south Wales.

Can you really go from THAT to the workhouse in two generations?

Well ... you CAN ... but it was rare. Particularly when the baptism I'd identified turned out to be the oldest surviving child of said wealthy merchant. Now I KNOW that my ancestor migrated from Somerset to London, and married in London. But what about THIS wealthy merchant's son? What did HE do?

I looked around for a marriage ... and there it is, in Somerset, in 1825.

So all of that work was chasing the wrong line. Probably.

I still need to check that the wife didn't die soon after ... not least because the marriage in London is still elusive.

But it's not looking promising.

Ah well ... at least it means there's more fun to come when I finally do identify the right line!

[Rena]

I have my father's apprenticeship agreement.  Employers didn't want to pay learners any money because initially they weren't very good at carrying out skilled tasks that they were taught.  Thus the parents signed an agreement to give the employer cash in order for the employer to pay weekly wages to the apprentice.   Presumably the employer would put that lump sum in the bank where it would earn interest for theemployer.