Genealogy Chat

I am trying to find William Pearce before 1851. There are 45 in the 1841 index on line all aged 10. If I put plus or minus one year there are 98. If I subscribed to 1837 online and looked at all of these it would not be cheap!! I have his marriage cert where he is aged 23 on 10th May 1855. I have always thought he would have been born in 1832. As I am useless at maths, if anyone knows the month of the 1841 census could they work out for me if William would have been exactly 10 (only 45 credits needed) or could he have been 9 or 11.(98 credits to sift through!) Totally useless at Maths and can't work it out!! Help would be appreciated! Chris

Hiya i have access to 1841 census tell me where he was born and likely to be living in 1841. Hugs xx

Hi Danuella, Thank you so much for your offer. I think it is probably an impossible task. According to the censuses from 1851-1901 he was born in Bentley Heath Essex, London parish unknown, London or just Essex. depending on which census you look at. According to his marriage cert, his father was Charles, a bricklayer. I have put Charles Pearce bricklayer into the 1841 census and come up with one in Marylebone but no William with him. I have also printed out a list of Charles Pearce and William Pearce of about the right age and cross referenced the areas where I came up with 11. I spent £10.00 on credits and came up with no Charles as head with William living with him except for one in Yorkshire which I thought was unlikely. By 1851 William was lodging in Northampton wher he stayed for the rest of his life. There are no baptism records for him in the churches around Bentley Heath Essex nor on the methodist circuit for the area. He was later a methodist. I cannot think where to start looking now except to trawl through all the William Pearces in 1841 hence the need to work out his exact age!! Chris

Hi The 1841 census was taken June 6 1841 if that helps. Unfortunately the ages on the 1841 are notoriously inaccurate as they rounded up and down by about five years, or so I am told, so it won't help you with your exact age.

you can look at the index for free on Ancestry BMD index 1837-1983 http://www.ancestry(.)co.uk/search/rectype/vital/freebmd/bmd.aspx Remove brackets Jeanette

P.S. Also on the 1841 the birthplace is not given, just if born in the same county as they are currently living. Perhaps they were living in Surrey or Middlesex in 1841. There are a couple of Charles with a William about 13 or within the five year spread, in these counties.

Well IF the enumerator in 1841 obeyed the rules he should have recorded an exact age for children under 15 and IF William told the truth about his age on marriage 23 on 10th May 1855 means he was 9 on 10th May 1841. The census that year was taken on the night of 6th June so he might still have been 9 or he might have had his tenth birthday between 10th May and 6 th June. Sorry to widen your search further but have you tried other spellings - Peerce, Pierce etc?

Thank you all for your suggestions. If Judith is right then at least I can look at 9 and 10 yr olds, this rules out 11.This as you can probably tell is my brick wall!! Thanks Chris