Hi my Great Grandfather was a boatman born in Tipton, Benjamin Cooksey Born 1857. His brother Samuel born Tipton 1852, William born in West Bromwich 1862 were both boatmen. John born 1866 was a boat loader in the 1911 census. Their Mum Sarah-jane Blackham is listed as being a boatwomen (born 1831 Sedgley died Tipton 1884) Thomas their dad also a boatman, born 1824 in Oldbury, died in Tipton in 1911. They were listed as living at 8 Boat Row, Park Lane West in the 1881 census. They had 10 Children, but the rest picked different trades or had no occupations listed. Some of Thomas's siblings were also boatmen & women, I believe his brother John married Hannah Timmins from another boatmen family too but became a lock keeper elsewhere. Joseph a Coal Boatman in Warwickshire but the family spread out over Birmingham & the black country, some going further North (Bradford from what I can remember) and others South e.g.Basingstoke. Benjamin went to Warwickshire and finished his career in Stockton Warwickshire where he and his Son in law took on a canal side shop & did a bit of trading in grain too.
Benjamin Cooksey is also My great grandfather! My grandad David is his son from his marriage with Hilda Mawby and I still live on the canals!
