Hi, my great aunt dora ( dolly/ dorothy ) b1912 in merthyr, married a arthur. c .lewis 1936 in whitchurch, ( ross on wye dist ), they had two boys michael and david, arthur died when david _ youngest b1949 ),when david was between 5 and 8 yrs old, trying to establish arthurs family, apparently he was from the forest or monmouth areas from a large family, his father may have been a butcher with a shop in monmouth, can anyone help me with finding out about this family please.

Phil, are you using the excellent FreeBMD website, I strongly recommend it ?

From that site and Arthur's name can quickly (and free-of-charge) confirm this marriage;

Surname First name(s) Mother/Spouse/Age District Vol Page
Marriages abt Dec 1936 (>99%)
Lewis Arthur C Sullivan Ross 6a 1251
Sullivan Dora Lewis Ross 6a 1251

Cannot see an obvious Birth for our "Arthur C Lewis", there are several of this name listed on FreeBMD, but none in the Forest that I can see, similarly none on this site's FoD PRs or GlosBMD.

This MIGHT ?? be his Birth, given the county, altho there are more in Monmouthshire registered at Cardiff, Pontypridd, Bedwelty etc, but not Monmouth town. This search is again beginning to stray out of this FoD site's area.

Surname Given Name Mother District Volume Page Transcriber
Births abt Sep 1916
Lewis Arthur C. Hack Hereford 6a 802 HS

http://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/search.pl

Assuming Dora does NOT have any middle initials, then this MAY perhaps be her birth registration ?

Surname Given Name Mother District Volume Page Transcriber
Births abt Mar 1912
Sullivan Dora Jarrett Merthyr T. 11a 1771 jd1363

IF this is true, then there are a few "possible" births in this general area of Monmouthshire that might be Arthur's ??. Unfortunately it looks like neither of them will be covered within the 1911 census so tricky to find their parents etc.

Searching Births to parent's names Lewis & Sullivan gives several to choose from including Monmouthshire into south Wales, but these two standout, the only ones in Herefordshire, and I guess confirming the Hereford marriage in 1936 ?.

Births abt Dec 1937 (>99%)
Lewis Arthur Sullivan Hereford 6a 692

Births abt Dec 1943 (>99%)
Lewis Michael J Sullivan Hereford 6a 869

Births abt Jun 1948 (>99%)
Lewis David J Sullivan Ross 9a 116

I also found this death;

Deaths Dec 1937 (>99%)
Lewis Arthur 0 Hereford 6a 616

(NB: this and the other BMD records show the Quarter in which the event was registered, so "Dec" quarter means during months of October/November/December).

Searching for David J Lewis's death in Glos/Monmouthshire/Herefordshire/Worcestershire gives several records but very few youngsters, altho this looks a half-decent fit, perhap ?;
Surname Given Name Age District Volume Page Transcriber
Deaths Dec 1957
LEWIS David J. 11 Cardiff 8b 269 cathnl

Repeating this search for Arthur's death gives this possible;

Surname First name(s) Age District Vol Page
Deaths Dec 1952 (>99%)
LEWIS Arthur C 44 Abergavenny 8c 32

Which suggests our Arthur was actually born abt 1908, which points towards these 3 births ?

Births Jun 1908 (>99%)
Lewis Arthur Conrad Bristol 6a 228a
Births Mar 1909 (>99%)
Lewis Arthur Cyril Pontypool 11a 232
Births Jun 1909 (>99%)
LEWIS Arthur Cyril Pontypridd 11a 755

SO, sadly, nothing conclusive but hopefully something of this is applicable to your tree.

Finally, you say his father MAY have been a butcher in Monmouth.

Well the 1901 Kelly's Directory of Monmouth does show this entry for Monmouth town
"Lewis Edwd., Robin Hood P.H. & butcher, 124 Monnow st"
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~familyalbum/kmon6.htm

It may be worth searching this man thro the Census, hopefully finding a young Arthur too. However be warned that Lewis is a very common name throughout the area/county, and my cursory look at the old Trade Directories website shows a fair number of Lewis butchers.

I sincerely hope this helps you Phil. However I must advise this will be my last post for a while, sorry but I must concentrate my time on other less pleasurable issues closer to home, but no problems for you as I've every confidence you can continue this search using the same sources I've used.

Good luck, Jeff

Thanks to all those who very kindly assisted me in discovering the lewis family, so many missing links found,

Merry xmas to all