I have a Stephen V. PIERCE born 23 March 1821 in Madison county NY. His death certificate, obituary and a newspaper family history all do not say who his parents were. The history says he was born in Madison county and lived in Cortland county N. Y., where he had lived since his sixth year. So he lived in Madison county from 1821 to 1827 and in Cortland county from 1827 to 1853. I found him in Marathon, Cortland county 1850 census. I found him on Marathon NY Assessment rolls Stephen V PIERCE1846,48,49,50,51,52,53 and Marathon NY deeds in 1845 and 1853 I checked the most likely wills with no luck. Later on, in Michigan, he was listed as a Free Will Baptist. Baptist don't baptize children and don't keep marriage records, so there probably won't be any useful records there. He was married to Caroline HARVEY about 1845 in Cortland county. Unfortunately there are many PIERCE and HARVEY families in both counties. Assuming his father was listed as the head of household in the 1830 Cortland county census there are 11 possible PIERCE's. Subtracting the names from the 1820 Cortland census leaves 7, comparing them with 1820 Madison county census PIERCEs leaves three eliminating 1830 Madison county PIERCEs leaves two both John PIERCE from Truxton. But there are too many assumptions and no proof. There was a large Judah PIERCE family that moved from Madison county to Cortland county but they moved in 1808 to early for Stephen to have been born in Madison county. There is a Samuel PIERCE of Homer who did not have a 5-9 year old bracket listed in th1830 census but had 3 listed in the 15-19 in the 1840 bracket. The 1855 census had him coming to Cortland county in 1823 late enough for Stephen to be have been born in Madison county although not long enough for Stephen to be six. He is the son of Judah who moved from Madison to Cortland county in 1808. There also are many HARVEYs with a daughter in the right age bracket for his wife Caroline in Homer in the 1840 census. Any suggestion on what to do next. L. D. (Bert) Semmelink lambertus.semmelink@unisys.com