Nan, It might not be him- like a twit I seached for him ( just because some of my family came from Upwell . One of the Upwell family shows up on the 1891 as being in the Army reserve) using Norfolk then remembered that Upwell was in Cambridgeshire back then. There were about four William Rawlings/Rawling showing up from Cambridgeshire but I didn't have time to cross check them all. Don't forget that unless he was getting capital from his mother or step father he had to find it somewhere, even if he just took a tenancy rather than buying the land and being a soldier might have paid better than being a horseman. He would have needed a cart horse or two and some machinery to start up with. There was a fine line between labourer and farmer in the Fens until recently. My 3x great grandfather farmed 250 + acres by the time he died but his son, my 2x great grandfather was the eldest of several children and left home to start up by himself before his father had enough land to support two families. So he was an ag lab before he managed to farm on his own account. This applied also to my great grandfather and grandfather in turn. Both were horsemen on other farms ( including the Scotts of Christchurch near Upwell) before managing to save/borrow buy farms of their own. There were many many small holdings in the Fens/Marshland which enabled families to get a foot on the farming ladder. Rosie On 27/07/2011 00:17, Nan Bailey wrote: > Many thanks folks, for your suggestions. The idea that William was in the > Army at that time is a big surprise, so I must try and follow that up. > > On his marriage certificate, his profession is labourer, so I always thought > of him as a farmer. > > Regards, > Nan > > On 26 July 2011 20:03, xpn11<xpn11@aol.com> wrote: > >> Nan, I found a William Rawlings on the 1881 giving his birth place >> just as Cambridgeshire ( which I think Town Street would have been in >> 1863 and he does give his birth county as Cambs in 1891) Piece 4727 >> Folio 105 page 32 as a soldier in Fulford Road Yorks but you would have >> to eliminate the other three or four with Cambs births by looking at the >> census records either side I think. >> Rosie >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> NORFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message >> > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NORFOLK-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message