Alan Payne (payne45 @t wcshighspeed.com) of  Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada, writes: My wife's Grandfather was Arthur Daniel Foster (Name from his Death Certificate)  Born 1894, Died 1952 in Canvey Island Essex. He always claimed, according to his two Daughters that he came from Hitchin. The story went that his mother died when he was young and he did not get along with his Step Mother so he left home and worked in a circus. He Married (??????) Mabel Jary, Date unknown as we cannot find a marriage certificate (Ancestry, F.M.P. or Latter day Saints) Mabel died on Canvey 1946. He worked as a labourer until his death. ...  so we are at the proverbial brick wall.

I suggest that that Arthur Daniel Foster's age on his death certificate may have been exaggerated and that he was the Arthur Foster, aged 2, who at the time of the 1901 census was living at 12, Skimpot, Hitchin, with his father James Foster (aged 34, Builders Yard Foreman, born Hitchin), mother Emily (31, born Walkern) and sister Minnie (aged 6, born Hitchin).

FreeBMD gives the birth of a Minnie Emily Foster registered in Hitchin in June 1895, and an Arthur Foster registered in Hitchin in March 1899. (Two earlier Arthur Foster births Sept 1895 and Sept 1898 were both followed by infant deaths in the same quarter so cannot be yours), FreeBMD also suggests that a James Foster may have married Emily Johnson - with the marriage registered in Hitchin in Sept 1889 - but I cannot find the couple in the 1891 census. However familysearch records the marriage taking place on 26th August 1889 at St Mary, Hitchin.

I checked the Index of the 1911 census (but not the full record). This shows that Arthur was still living with his father James but Emily was nowhere to be seen. A look at the full record will show if James was "married" to someone else. I can't see Emily's death on FreeBMD but we are talking about a time when there was no effective means of divorce and many husbands still considered their wife was little more than a slave. (There is a proverb - "A wife, a dog and a walnut tree, the more you beat them the better they be.")  If Emily fled the household and was replaced by another woman one can see why Arthur might not have got on with his stepmother.

Quick checks showed that James Foster was living in Hitchin with his parents in the 1871 census, while Emily Johnson was a 9 day old baby at Walkern at the time of the census She also appears in the 1881 census. This means that if I have the right Arthur you should have no difficulty in following the family further back along both his father and mother's side.

As the children were in Hitchin they may have gone to the British School so it is worth  contacting British School Museum which has records of the children who went there.