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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.

Was William left with young children, if so, his marriage to Ann may have been one of convenience which grew as he mourned his first wife. Ann would have been around him no doubt, helping him and rather than bring her into his household as a housekeeper, he married her for the sake of respectability.