Frank's Birth Certificate names his father as John WARD, commercial traveller and his mother as Mary Ann WARD (nee Kent) - although Frank himself had told his family various stories about his origins, this wasn't one of them (even though we know that he had obtained a copy of his birth certificate when aged just 12).  However, although there is no record of Mary Ann Kent ever having married, given that she had stated her correct maiden name on the birth certificate, it seems worth following up the possibility that Frank's father was indeed a John WARD, commercial traveller.  The important information that is missing, is where Mary Ann was living nine months before Frank's birth - around Christmas time of 1879!  Was she still working at her brother's Inn in Colerne, Wiltshire or had she already moved to Bristol to stay with her married sister Emily Brown and possibly work for Emily's husband Kennedy Brown (a draper)?

There were several men named John Ward, occupation commercial traveller, who could fit the bill in the 1871 and 1881 censuses - though none were from the Bristol or Wiltshire area.  I am working my way through the list to find out more about each of them, and hoping that one day I will find an autosomal DNA match with a descendant of one of them, that could confirm Frank's father's identity. [Stupidly, I never took the opportunity to ask my father to take a yDNA test, as he was the ONLY surviving male direct line descendant of Frank Ward]