Edward (34), Ada (34), Gertrude (1) and Edward Meredith (4) living at 3 Bath Cottages, Cecil Street Stourbridge. They have three singers lodging with them. 
Joseph and Ann Meredith are living alone at Bird’s Barn, Kingsley, Wolverley.

Hill

Alfred (61), Alice (56), Edward (21), Sidney Walter (16), Amy Maud (14), James Earnest (12) and Frances May (10) are living at Beehive Farm, Golden Cross Lane, Catshill near Bromsgrove. Alfred , Sidney Walter and Edward are listed as farm workers and then more specifically as ‘haulers’ working on their own account.

Sunter (and Marsh)

Charles Sunter (29) is living with his soon to be wife, Emma Marsh (17). She is pregnant. They are boarding with Emma’s parents John William Marsh (45) and a Lodging House Keeper, his wife Jane (46) and their other daughter Amy Dawson who is registered on the census as married, although her husband is not with her on this night. Charles is an unemployed ‘fireman, locomotive’.

Of Charles’s family Jane Ann Sunter, his mother is in the Middlesbrough Workhouse. She is 46, a widow and working as ‘relife (sic) foster mother’ helping to look after 12 boys aged from 5 to 15. Ironically she is not looking after her own children:

Joe Sunter (16) and Edward (13) are living at the Edgworth National Children’s home near Bolton. Joe is listed as an office boy – it is believed he went on to be editor of the Colne Times. Edward became a Congregationalist minister and died in 1964 near Halifax.

A third son, James (9) is living at Long Melford in Suffolk with watch maker Robert Henry Miles (55) and his wife of two years Unity (57). Robert’s son, Reginald Victor Miles (15), a post office messenger is also living with them, along with another boarder Albert Blake, also aged 9.  

Grace Elizabeth (26) married Alexander Crombie (45) in 1908. They are living with their one year old daughter Annie Rebecca at ‘Cottage rear f 89 High Street, Esplanade, Recar, Yorkshire’.

Of Dorothy (23), Gertrude (21) and Olive (20) there is no trace in the 1911 Census. There are possible records of a marriage of a Dorothy H Sunter in 1926 and Gertrude Sunter to John McKinnel in Stockton in 1923.

Jane Ann Sunter also had two step children from Joseph’s first marriage to Isabella.

William Sunter (38) is now living at Redcar at 3 North Terrace Coatham. He is a Labourer cycle manufacturer. He is boarding with 55 years old widow Margaret Graham and her son ‘Jn’ who is 25 and whose occupation is described as ‘slater house’ – possibly slaughter house?

A record of Hannah Sunter cannot be found on the 1911 census.

Which leaves further research questions: 

• Where were Fred’s uncle and aunt’s Meredith?
• Who is missing and where were they?

Confirmation has arrived that Alice Hill, Fred’s grandmother, was born as Alice Dyer. This provide a crucial link to the Dyer family – who, born in Stratford on Avon – worked on canal boats during the 19th Century.

The first trace of Thomas Dyer is in the 1841 Census when he is listed as a ‘boatman’ working at Old Stratford, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire. Next to his name in the left margin of the census is the word “William” – presumably the boat on which he was working.

Thomas’s age is listed as 20 – although he was actually born in 1820. Enumerators working on the census were instructed to round down ages to the nearest five years.

The Census data reads:

1841 Old Stratford, Stratford on Avon, Warwickshire

William( in margin)Thomas Dyer, 20, Boatman

Thomas seems to have been staying on the boat alone as no others are listed within the household.

By 1851, as we would expect from a boatman, the family is on the move.

Thomas has married Hannah and they have four children listed as being born at Middx (Middlesex?), Buckinhums (sic, Buckinghamshire) and Thestfords (?). Thomas and Hannah’s birth places are listed as not known which suggests that whoever was giving the enumerator the data, it was NOT one of these two. Sadly the name of the boat is not recorded.

1851 Paddington, All Saints, Marylebone

Canal South Way

Thomas Dyer,31, Head, Canal boatman, not known

Hannah Dyer, 29, Wife, not known

William Dyer, 8, Son, Mddx

Frederick Dyer, 6, Son, Middx

Sarh Dyer 2, daughter, Buckinhums

Emma Dyer 3 months, daughter, Thestfords

By 1861 the family are now on “The Leeds” at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire

Alice, Fred’s grandmother, has now been born.

Thomas Dyer, Head, Married, 41, Master, Warwick, Stratford on Avon

Hannah Dyer, Wife, Married, 40, Warwick, Stratford on Avon

Frederick Dyer, Son, 16, Mater, Warwick, Stratford on Avon

Elizabeth Dyer, Daughter, 9, Warwick, Stratford on Avon

Alice Dyer, daughter, 7, Warwick, Stratford on Avon

Thomas Dyer, Son, 4, Warwick, Stratford on Avon

Joseph Dyer, Son, 2, Warwick, Stratford on Avon

The canal at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire (grev16, Google Earth)
 

By 1871, the last Census before Alice married Arthur Hill, the family is moored at Tardibigge. Alice, though, is not present and despite searches I cannot find where she is. The rest of the family on the Leeds are:

Thomas Dyer, Head, Married, 50, Captain of Canal Boat, Worcester, Stratford on Avon

Hannah Dyer, Wife, Married, 49, Worcester, Stratford on Avon

Thomas Dyer, Son, Unmarried 14 , Apprentice (?), Worcester, Stratford on Avon

Charles H Dyer, Son, Unmarried, 8 Worcester, Stratford on Avon

Waller Dyer, Son, unmarried, 4 Worcester, Stratford on Avon

Perhaps a clue to the location of 14 years old Alice is that also at Tardebigge, a few boats away, are some more Dyers:

Francis Dyer, Heard, Married, 24, Captain of canl both, Worcester, Stratford on Avon

Emma Jane Dyer, Married 20,Worcester, Stratford on Avon

William Dyer, Unmarried, 16, Assistant

John Learson, 14, Assistant

Could it be that she has been left with relatives?