My apologies to Worcester listers who were kind enough to look for Joseph and Isabella PERKS and daughter Amanda who might have been visiting family in the Stourbridge area at the time of the 1851 census. A Liverpool lister in California found them in the 1851 Liverpool index -- recorded as PEEKS! -- and provided the reference. So much for PERKS/PERKES/PERKINS/PARKS etc tried hitherto; I must add PEEKS and maybe PECKS in future. (Any more suggestions?) They're still 'missing' in 1861. Ancestry.com produced Joseph PERKS born/chr. 3 April 1825, Old Swinford, Worcs. Father: Thomas PERKS born 1799, Old Swinford; died 31 March 1872, Old Swinford Mother: Sebra BINNS married 25 August 1822, ... Staffs/Worcs but I still don't know for sure if this was my Joseph Perks. Was it a very common name in the area? Old Swinford is not far from Lye, which was Joseph's place of birth as given in the 1871 census. (1851 says Stourbridge). How reliably did people know their dates of birth? Joseph's marriage certificate (31 December 1848) clearly says age 24, which means he must have been born some time in 1824. The census of 2 April 1871 has him down as 45, which might be strictly accurate if he was in fact the Joseph Perks born on 3 April 1825 -- he would have been 46 the next day! He died in New Zealand on 5 March 1900; the death certificate says age 75 (place of birth 'Thropshire England' !!); I'm told the cemetery record says aged 76... The death certificate bears no name of informant.