Joseph Pierce - missing birth record

[pennyd]

I'm having trouble finding the birth record for my ancestor Joseph Pierce.
I have him on the census records for 1881, 1891 and 1901 which all suggest his birth year was around 1853. I have his marriage certificate which states he was 23 in 1877, which again suggests a birth year of around 1853/54.
I know from the marriage cert that his father's name was also Joseph, a bricklayer
Censuses show he was born in Flintshire.

I can't find any birth records in Flintshire for 1853 or 1854. I sent for a cert for 1852, but it states fathers name as James so appears not to relate to my relative.
I've searched under Pierce, Peirce, Pearce and Peers.
I use Ancestry and familysearch at home, but have also accessed Find My Past in the library.
I have a potential link to censuses in 1871,1861 and 1851 but need to find his birth cert to confirm his mothers name to confirm the link..
Any ideas, anyone?

[Megan Roberts]

Joseph Pierce birth registered Holywell D quarter 1852 Volume 11B Page 251 mother's maiden name Foulkes.

I can't for now see a marriage record between Foulkes and Pierce.

1871 census Piece 5644 Folio 15 Page 21 is that your man living with his mother Ann at Golfyn? If it is it's possible that the Pierce marriage is not her first in which case it wound be lusted under Foulkes.

[pennyd]

Joseph Pierce birth registered Holywell D quarter 1852 Volume 11B Page 251 mother's maiden name Foulkes.

I can't for now see a marriage record between Foulkes and Pierce.

1871 census Piece 5644 Folio 15 Page 21 is that your man living with his mother Ann at Golfyn? If it is it's possible that the Pierce marriage is not her first in which case it wound be lusted under Foulkes.

Hi Megan, This is the birth cert that I have, from 1852, but it lists the father as James, not Joseph so I don't think it relates to my ancestor

[pennyd]

Hi Megan, This is the birth cert that I have, from 1852, but it lists the father as James, not Joseph so I don't think it relates to my ancestor

[Megan Roberts]

You are taking his father's name as Joseph from marriage certificate? Do you have anything else to corroborate that?

Unfortunately you can't discount the possibility of an error being made on either certificate. It's highly unlikely that your ancestors would have had a copy of the certificate, because in those days people didn't have a need for them, they cost money and they may not have been literate.

I have many examples in my own tree of "strange" things:

In the 1930s when my uncle was born my grandfather did not have the money for a certificate, but did have an official receipt for the registration of the birth of an unnamed boy. And I know that it wasn't until he was an adult and wanted to take out life insurance that he had to get a certificate because the receipt had no name on it.

When getting the birth certificates of my grandfather and his siblings I discovered an error on one of the middle children's ones. The registrar has written his mother's maiden name down as Williams rather that Evans.

In the 1860s on my gt gt grand parents marriage certificate that I got from the GRO it says that Mary Jones was the daughter of James Jones and I spent years looking for them. Then a cousin found a copy of the actual church register and lo and behold Mary Jones was the daughter of Edward Jones and we quickly found them.

So getting back to your problem:

Which censuses do you have?

Have you found Joseph senior and if so where?

Have you tried looking for James?

Is the 1871 I found correct.

[pennyd]

Ive been wondering whether the James on the marriage cert could be an error, so given your experiences with errors on certificates Ill certainly investigate this option further.
But yes, I have the 1871 census showing my Joseph living with Ann at Golftyn. As far as I can see, he is the only Joseph Pierce born around his alleged dof b who is on the 1871 census. I also have the 1861 census which shows Ann married to Joseph, although the spelling is PEERS, but several of the children's names correspond to the 1871 Pierce census. I was just hoping to find his birth reoord to confirm his mother's name so I could make a definite link.

[helachau]

What was James Pierce's occupation on the 1852 birth certificate?

[Megan Roberts]

In my view there were two separate families. One PIERCE and the other PEERS.

I have reached this conclusion after checking the censuses, which I agree seem to confuse the two, and don't seem to show the two separately, and then searching the Flintshire parish records, which Findmypast have, and which clearly show the two family names.

Joseph who was living at Golfyn was a Peers as he was buried from there 9 Dec 1870 aged 62.

If you look at the 1851 census for the Peers family they have a 1 year old son called Joseph. I think based on the other info you have you can rule him out because the actual return says that he is 1 year old and not a number of months etc.

There is another Joseph Pierce whose birth was registered in Holywell in 1850 D are vol 27 Page 236, mother's maiden name Jones, but I didn't mention him before because I'm pretty certain that he's the one that appears in the 1851 census with parents Edward and Sarah.

If Joseph's father was called Joseph then perhaps he is the one who we born 19 May 1808, and baptised on the 22nd of that month at Halkyn, to parents William and Catherine.

[Megan Roberts]

In my view there were two separate families. One PIERCE and the other PEERS.

I have reached this conclusion after checking the censuses, which I agree seem to confuse the two, and don't seem to show the two separately, and then searching the Flintshire parish records, which Findmypast have, and which clearly show the two family names.

Joseph who was living at Golfyn was a Peers as he was buried from there 9 Dec 1870 aged 62.

If you look at the 1851 census for the Peers family they have a 1 year old son called Joseph. I think based on the other info you have you can rule him out because the actual return says that he is 1 year old and not a number of months etc.

There is another Joseph Pierce whose birth was registered in Holywell in 1850 D are vol 27 Page 236, mother's maiden name Jones, but I didn't mention him before because I'm pretty certain that he's the one that appears in the 1851 census with parents Edward and Sarah.

If Joseph's father was called Joseph then perhaps he is the one who we born 19 May 1808, and baptised on the 22nd of that month at Halkyn, to parents William and Catherine.

[pennyd]

yes, I have the birth details of Joseph, born to William and Catherine in 1808. Just not got anything definite to link the Joseph born around 1853 to him. I also have a marriage for a Joseph Pierce and Anne Hughes in 1829 as a possiblity for the parents.