Fred BLEWITT 1880 Cinderford (General)

by unknown, Sunday, November 13, 2011, 08:46 (4763 days ago) @ slowhands

On behalf of Tony - thanks for the info "slowhands" you can also see some of the problems we have in tracing the family in UK with the spelling of the surname and the instance of some enumerators in calling him Frederick - he was pure and simple "FRED" as was his brother FRANK not Francis.
We know that both of them were, as my grandma from the Potteries would say, "down Pit" Fred was we believe from the census something to do with the Pit Ponies and was above ground but Frank was below ground.
Both came out here on the same ship a year apart Frank ended up on the Wharves in Wellington and them became a "Civil Servant" Fred was at first a Tramways inspector then he became the Health Inspector for New Brighton in Christchurch, this covered a mutlitude of things from Drivers Licence testing to Farm Inspections. According to Tony and his sister Fred said very little about his life in Cinderford, and Franks son Frank says that his father was very vague about things too.
We believe from reports that Fred gave evidence against the mine owners just prior to his leaving Cinderford perhaps that has something to do with his leaving but we do not know which mine they worked for.
Even when he was able to come "home" he flatly refused. Fred married Eva Preston and had two sons and two daughters. Frank married twice his first wife died shortly after they were married he re married and had a son Frank who is a Real Estate Agent (amongst other things he was also at one time the local funeral director) in Levin not far from Wellington. Frank Jnr is still alive and Freds daughter Muriel and Tony are the only survivors from Fred - all are now in their 80's. They all have families.

Thanks once again for your help, we are all (Frank,Alison,Tony and I (Tonys other half)) enjoying trying to unravel the life of Fred and Frank. If anyone knows anything we would love to hear from you

Dyan