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Pedrocut, you'll never guess. You were right! He probably did buy up Sarah Cudd's cycle fittings, OR he started manufacturing pedals for her!

I love that you found this. There was so much hope all the way through from Matthew and then some crazy twists and turns happened and the whole thing turned into a historical family saga!

I love it. The history is coming together.

Things can get a little muddled on Ancestry. Matthew senior's father was definitely Matthias. He also had a son named Matthew. Matthew Junior keeps popping up to confuse me with dates!

Yes, I picked this up on Ancestry. Matthias was a labourer and worked in Kemberton, Shropshire. That's where his son, Matthew Picken, set out from when he was ten years old. I love Sarah's signature. It looks for well controlled and makes me think that she was an educated woman. I did wonder if...

Very sad for Birmingham and its illustrious industrial past.

When I look at the challenging times for industry and the UK just in the 20th century alone, it is an achievement.

It's a book of fiction based on the truth of how the business grew over 200 years. I WISH I could find something out about Joe but he hasn't appeared in my Ancestry searches and I didn't want to get sucked down rabbit holes instead of writing! I am prone to enjoying a rabbit hole but I must get...

Thanks for the Kelly's Directories tip. The factory went into liquidation after 6 years of horrifying upheaval for my parents. The did everything to keep the company solvent although they were in their 70s. The bank finally called in their loans in 1996. Almost 200 years after Matthew started...

Thank you. I'm really grateful for these snippets but aware I need to join in too! Decided to use the youth who died story in Book 1. It gives a lovely opportunity to start to bring in another thread that weaves its way through the future story.

Oh lovely Sarah Sophia. Bless her for suffering so long. Are you finding these in Ancestry Pedrocut? I'm loving them. It really colours in their life for me.

Wow! That's a find. Thank you. Worth including, I reckon.

Thank you Richard. My son trained as a metal fabricator so I'll quiz him, meanwhile, I'm off to Google this!

Pedrocut, thank you so much for all this information and directions to expand my searches on Ancestry. All this information really helps me to see how Matthew built up his business, he must have been quite an entrepreneur despite his humble beginnings. His father was a labourer as were his...

This would have been Matthew's grandson Albert Picken, who joined the business aged 13 years old. Yes! I think it's highly likely that they did buy Mr Wizzard out. By the 1960s, my brother recalls playing in the back-to-backs behind the factory and the footprint of the factory took up a fair...

I like it! Yes, he could well have done, except in 1914 this would have been his grandson Albert Picken. You'd have thought the likes of the Pickens with their dirty industry, would have kept the vacuum cleaner business busy!

Thank you Mike, another lovely find. :)

Thanks for your reply Malcolm. The factory number was 24, it seems that I was looking at the serial numbers not the house numbers on the census! I'm planning a trip to the Birmingham library to take a look at old records and get some colourful details for the book.

This is fantastic, thank you! The first thing that struck me was the date. For years I have been researching my family and find that dates constantly repeat. The date of the patent is my son's birthday. Isn't this a fantastic document ... so clear. Thank you again.