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Hi - have been trying to find document - where do I look ? Am interested in some of the old businesses of Weston

Most useful document: my GGF's Freedom of the City certificate in the London Guildhall - why? because he was born in Germany and aliens were not allowed to have any city Freedom - so they had to check his claim of becoming naturalised as a British Subject...and they wrote down his naturalisation certificate number on the Freedom certificate and gave the town where he was born!!!

Two items of criminal activity: a GGM was imprisoned for 6 months but I haven't found anything about where or why.  The second was a 2C2R who murdered his wife and was hanged by Thomas Pierrepoint in Hull.

LDS connection: my 4GGU Robert Carlile emigrated to Heber with one of the Capt Jolley transports in 1851.  I have found researching his family and the journey quite fascinating.

Oct advice: take a DNA test with Ancestry - they're on sale!!!

Thanks, Pat.

Just a thought. In looking at the Census and public records for my own Great Grandfather (b1832 d1916) he would appear to have had a different trade/profession in almost every census and record I have found for him! Here’s a list:

1851 – Tinner (?) Journeyman

1858 – Plate Layer

1861 – Train Examiner

1861 – Railway Carriage Fitter

1867 – Book-keeper, 5,6,7, Clarence Street, Cheltenham

1869-1871 - Accountant,

1871 – House Decorator

1875 – Confectioner

1881 – Clerk to Highway Inspector

1883 - Confectioner

1884 – Confectioner

1888 – Insurance Agent

1889 – Superintendent, Assurance Company

1891 – Agent, Life Assurance

1899 – Photographer

1901 – Photo Agent

1911 – Old Age Pensioner

1916 – Formerly an Insurance Agent 

I think people could move around into different jobs more easily in the past?

Have you tried the Ancestry Bristol Non-Conformist Baptism Marriage and Burial records 1644-1981?  It contains several Weston-super-Mare entries.

Is it possible that the training he got in the Royal Engineers would have given him the necessary start for a similar career after the war?

Thanks Les, This would be a very reasonable supposition except that as Rob has pointed out William's first wife was much older when they married and past childbearing years.  No children from his marriages.