RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Matt7924 on Sunday 06 July 25 20:28 BST (UK)
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I posted on here a few weeks about about a Cyril Lewis who married my grandad's cousin, it turned out Cyril was illegitimate when I ordered his birth certificate. He gave a false father's name, Frank Lewis on the marriage certificate and by coincidence the 1939 census shows a Frank Lewis living down the road from Cyril and his mother Lily in Merry Hill, Wolverhampton.
This Frank Lewis who appears to be no relation, was born in Willenhall a few miles east of Wolverhampton around 1880 and his father Joseph was a lock worker as lockmaking was the main industry in Willenhall. What interested me was how Frank, after working as a clerk at a foundry, was an ironfounder himself by the 1939 census. His brother George had also moved to Wolverhampton and was a commercial traveller.
Was it quite common for some people from working class backgrounds to set up their own businesses like Frank or to become a travelling salesman like his brother? I found George's one son trained as an architect and later lived in Tettenhall, a leafy village that used to have its own council, but it's now part of the borough of Wolverhampton. I might have an even more distant connection by marriage with this family as I had heard of a Mary Lewis (Lewis was her married name) who was a cousin of one of my great-grandmothers from Bilston who later lived in Tettenhall and her husband was either an accountant or architect.
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The 1939 was a Register NOT a census.
See https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/1939-register/
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The 1939 was a Register NOT a census.
See https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/1939-register/
Sorry, I meant register
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A clerk in a foundry would have had some education and be in a position to learn about the foundry business, so not unreasonable to start his own business in the same line, The 1939 register wouldn't indicate how big his business was, could be a one man company or he could employ several people. Similarly someone working for a manufacturing company might later go on the road to sell goods for that company, if they had skills in salesmanship.
Complete changes of occupation are hardest to explain, but sometimes it happens after marriage and the occupation of the father-in-law is the clue.
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These are some good points, and the foundry business looks like it could have been fairly small as Frank was living in an ordinary detached house on the 1939 register. I can look to see what Frank's father in law's occupation was, as well as George's father in law.
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I've looked on Family Search and Find my Past and I found that Frank Lewis's wife Ada Bettley, also from Willenhall, was the daughter of a shoeing smith. Ada herself is listed on the 1901 census as a teacher. Frank's brother George married Mary Fryer, but I haven't been able to find her on the censuses yet. Her middle name was Hemming, possibly her mother's maiden name, but I still haven't found anything.