Well Sam was born in 1839 and married Virginie Hemsley in 1859 first of all then Esther Chapman in 1869. Then he lived with Agnes Annie Bosworth (calling himself a widower despite Esther still being alive - can't find any evidence he ever married Agnes though). Esther calls herself a Widow.
He was borh in Sutton in Ashfield to Hannah Samson (no father on birth cert) but she gave him the middle name "FOX" and married a Joseph Fox shortly aftre Sam's birth so we can but summise.
I have him in 1871 - 1881 and 1901 & 1911 but not 1891. I have looked at the addresses he had in 1881 and 1901 but he isn't there (even under a false name). As he changes his name as often as he changes his wives it is a little tricky.
Born Samuel Fox Sansom, then becomes Samuel Sansom Fox when his mum remarries, then Stays Sam Fox until 1861 census when it looks like the census taker has mistakenly "ditto'd" the surname from the family next door (the 1st names, dates, places of birth and kids are all correct) and calls him Samuel Wilson.
He stays Fox until 1901 when he reverts to Sansom and is livign with Agnes Annie (I guess as his wife is still alive he has changed his name).
It is a little tricky as there is another Samuel Sansom an iron founder but ours is definitely a lace worker.
What doesn't help is that his kids are living with Esther in 1891 so we can't even trace him through them. We are summising that as Agnes's 1st child was born in 1890 and her rd has the middle name Fox, that maybe Sam met her at work between 1881 and 1891, they started a relationship, she got pregnant so he had to tell Esther, who promptly left him and took the kids and called herself a widon to avoid the shame. Agnes is 25 yrs younger than Sam and would have been 21 when her 1st child was born.
Another family member (who i met doing the tree) had the same stores as us but had Sam moving to Paris to be a photographer! But he contracted a french researcher to look in paris and found nothing so.....
I am hoping to go to the maitre in Calais this summer to see if I can get at the census returns as i can't find them online.
We also have fun with Sam's son Joseph Samuel Fox as he marries a lady called Agnes Rogers a few years after their 1st 3 kids are born but 2 of the 3 are recorded as being born in France. Again, we can't find any evidence. Even the LDS site is no help!
As you can tell, we are a little frustrated. I have tried emailing the Calais maitre but had no reply so I will be tryign out my not too feeble french when I go over. It is a little annoying that the french census returns are not on Ancestry or a similar site!
ooh!
Nearly forgot the census references:
1841 HO 107/861/7
1851 HO 107/2127
1861 RG 9/2418
1871 RG10/3504
1881 RG11/3363
1901 RG13/3178
I was frustrated recently when I went back to Nottingham to go to the lace museum only to discover it is now a restaurant. I checked on the Nottingham archives website but they don't list anythign in the way of lace records.
