Mellie wrote: > Hi Charani > Your John Pye appears to be a blacksmith employer in 1871 > if you email me at chouikh2006@btinternet.com I will send you the details and image of list Many thanks for that information. Someone has already sent me the image but thank you for the offer :))

In Mercer & Crocker 1877, page 161, John Pye, Blacksmith, is at Shawbury. 1881 you of course quote. 1901 index he gives birth place as Shrewsbury rather than Shawbury, age 72, living Shrewsbury, civil parish St. Mary's, Blacksmith. Could not find wife Harriet on the 1901 index. You may well have him 1901. So if labourer in 1881 was correct, he must have moved up the ladder again. Jo.

2twigs3 wrote: > In Mercer & Crocker 1877, page 161, John Pye, Blacksmith, is at Shawbury. > 1881 you of course quote. > 1901 index he gives birth place as Shrewsbury rather than Shawbury, age 72, > living Shrewsbury, civil parish St. Mary's, Blacksmith. > Could not find wife Harriet on the 1901 index. You may well have him 1901. > > So if labourer in 1881 was correct, he must have moved up the ladder again. Very many thanks for that. That's brilliant :)) It looks like Keith was right in saying that the 1881 was an error on the part of the enumerator and the entry should have read "Blacksmith. 1 labourer" and not "Blacksmith's labourer". It could be that Shawbury, which I'd never heard of before, has been misread as Shrewsbury. I thought it was supposed to be the latter initially, but it didn't look right, did a bit of checking and found it was the former. It also means that the 1912 death at age 83 is the one I want.

Charani: Had a rather belated bright idea and tried a google, uk only, criteria pye + shawbury. If you want it, quickest way is probably to do above rather than type this: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=pye+%2B+shawbury+&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB Appears you have to register for further details to what is given, age of messages unknown. However may give you a bit of earlier info. Jo.

Hmm. I have now scrolled through quite a few pages and found a few 'blacksmith"s with no qualifier and journeyman of various trades including one blacksmith. So I am coming back to the view that John Pye at this point was an employee rather than an employer. Am I right in thinking he was away from his home turf? That might be an explanation of sorts. judy