Hi! As a newbie to this genealogy stuff (and half an Edlin - see later), I though people might be interested in a few more recent Edlin snippets. This is with encouragement from David!
Firstly, about Robert William, the younger bicycle maker referred at 20.1.2 in David's comprehensive document: I found, through a web-based antiquarian bookshop, a copy of patent no 28,209 (Application 3 June 1910, Accepted 31 Dec 1910) which states:
'I, Robert William Edlin, Managing Director, of Edlin Sinclair, Limited, of 26, Sherlock Street, in the City of Birmingham, do declare the nature of this invention......'
There follows a two page description, and A4-sized diagram, for a metal pannier ('front wheel carrier') for a bicycle, like those that I remember used by local grocer's or baker's delivery boys.
My interest stems from Robert William's brother John, the Worsted Spinner's Clerk from Broughton (b1864/5). He and wife Esther had two children (Henry Fowler EDLIN b1897/8, and Robert Percy EDLIN, b1890/1). By the 1901 census there were no further children.
In a marriage registered in the fourth quarter of 1914, Robert Percy married Rose Annie POUGHER, the eldest child of Arthur Dick POUGHER, a professional cricketer for Leicestershire and England.
I have ordered their marriage certificate, and await it with some interest - because their first child, born 1 May 1915 (interestingly close to the marriage?) was my mother, Winifred May EDLIN. She died in 1996, but had a sister (born c1929) who survives. The family does not, sadly, live in the lap of luxury afforded by the proceeds of the patent on a bicycle pannier.
The upshot of all this is that David can close off one line of the Edlins, although it would appear that many more continue!
My apologies to those whom I may have bored with these ramblings, and I look forward to trying to unravel the intricacies of the bicycle makers' antecedents.
Peter