Individual's Report

George was born around 1840 / 1841 in Stratton, near Dorchester, Dorset.

At some point between 1859 and 1865 he met Louisa Randall and they married, again I have not yet discovered when or where this took place, but I do know that Louisa came from the Chickerell area.

The 1871 census shows George living in Preston, Dorset, although no particular street seems to be apparent. His occupation is given as cordwainer. This was a term used to describe a shoemaker. The difference between a cordwainer and a cobbler is that a cordwainer would only use new leather, whereas a cobbler would use both new and old! By 1871 the couple had the first three children, Ellen, William and Annie, also in residence with the family was a servant by the name of Mary Bascombe and Frederick G Holland, a cordwainer's apprentice (presumably the apprentice of George). This leads me to want to investigate the poor union records for that time as their may be some records there relating to Frederick Holland's apprenticeship with George.

At some point between 1871 and 1877 George and his family moved to Spring Lane in Wyke Regis. This was the given address given when George registered the birth of his son Albert Edward on August 6th of 1877.

In the 1881 Census the family were still living in No. 1 Spring Lane. Both Ellen and Annie appear to have left home, the latter is quite surprising as she would only have been 12 or 13 years old, but again I can find no records of her.
George was at this point working as a cord binder in the Brewery, presumably on the Quay side in Weymouth as it was very close to their house, however there were several breweries in Weymouth at that time so I can't be sure which one he worked in. Also by 1881 the couple had five more children, Elizabeth, George J, Frederick, Thomas and my great grandfather Albert Edward.

Four more children followed over the next eight years, Louisa, Lucy, Alice and Mabel, but George died sometime before 1891 as he was missing from the Census and his wife, Louisa, is shown as a widow. Assuming that Mabel was his last child I would say that George died somewhere between 1887 and 1891.