What do you think?

[Merry]

OC, I don't know if you have gone back with Charles b 1875? I struggled to find him in 1881, but his family are there in Aston with the surname spelling Mc Clouse. Having a gap between the Mc and the other bit seems to upset the Soundex search!

[Olde Crone]

Grr, my message got thrown out.

Merry - I have the McClouds from 1851 onwards, struggling with 1841 but just about to have another foray.

"A lot of money" may turn out to be £100, of course! Charles Frederick's father was a builder and died in 1907, only 6 years before his son Charles, and when his grandson Charles Sydney was only 6 years old, so maybe the money was in trust until Charles Sydney was 21.

OC

[kiterunner]

I was passing the archives this afternoon, so I popped in and had a quick look. I couldn't find anything for Charles Frederick but is this his father?

1907 MCCLOUD James of 48 Bloomsbury-street Birmingham died 5 July 1907 Probate Birmingham 23 October to Arthur William Kemp auctioneer. Effects £438 18s 3d.

Not much of a fortune, I'm afraid.

[Olde Crone]

Thankyou SO MUCH, Kate, that's brilliant. And you may have found me a missing marriage of one of his daughters to a Kemp, lol!

No, not much of a fortune at all, but that's family stories for you. Mind you, by the time Lottie got her hands on it in 1929, it might have been nearly £1k, which would probably have seemed a lot of money to her at that time.

OC

[Phoenix]

That depends where you are starting from, though. I've been looking at Croydon properties (5 rooms, wc, scullery, so bog standard victorian housing) where the weekly rent was 8s. Men might be earning as little as £1 per week, so that would keep quite a lot of wolves from the door, even if it mightn't buy many pearl necklaces.

That would have been quite a lot of money then - my friends grandmother bought a two bedroom house for about £350 in 1910.