Over several weeks, with the help of our genealogist friend Yvonne Moore in England, who has complete access to all of the Census documents, we put together the following trail.
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1901 census. William Bullock aged 45, wife Emily aged 30, with four children, Bertie aged 11, and others 5, 4 and 1, living at Toads Hole in the parish of Astley.
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1891 census. William Bullock aged 31, wife Elizabeth aged 33, with six children, Alice aged 9, and others 8, 6, 4, 3, and 7 month old Herbert(Bertie?), living at Collins Green, Martley.
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1881 census. William Bullock aged 23 living with a border, Elizabeth Griffiths aged 23 and a 5 week old child, Alice, living at Martley.
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1871 census. Richard Bullock aged 56, wife Susannah aged 41, with five children, William aged 14, and others aged 9, 7, 4, and 4 months, all living at Collins Green, Martley.
The villages of Astley and Martley were only five miles apart, well within walking distance of laborers in the farming community. From the evidence we had accrued it seemed obvious that the William Bullock in the 1881 census was living with Elizabeth Griffiths, with whom he had fathered a child, Alice of 5 weeks.
Then in the 1891 census we find William with wife Elizabeth and eldest child Alice, 9 years of age. Fairly conclusive evidence that in both census documents they were the same William and Elizabeth.
With William and Elizabeth in the 1881 census we also find Richard Bullock with wife Susan and several of the children registered to Richard in the previous census of 1871, when William was also registered as 14 years old. Again, fairly conclusive that Richard and Susan in 1881 are the same Richard and Susannah in 1871.
They were without doubt the parents of William Bullock
