Hi all, This is my first request to the list and wondered if some kind soul could help me with a look up to solve a very long standing problem. For many years I have been trying to find the birth place and consequently the parents of my g.g.grandfather William Grice born 1803 (according to marriage cert, census,etc). Unfortunately each census gives a different birthplace i.e.- 1841 census gives his birthplace as Y for Staffs. 1851 census gives NK (not known). 1861 census gives Newcastle. Staffs. 1871 census gives Wednesbury. Staffs. He died before the 1881 census. I have searched all records over the years without success. However, he raised all his family in West Bromwich, so as a last desperate measure if I could find his Settlement Papers in the West Brom records, these should give his place of birth. He married Elizabeth Barnes 3 Nov 1823 at Walsall. Elizabeth was born in Wednesbury 1803. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Kind regards, Bill Grice.

I am looking forward to seeing any response to this question as I have a similar problem with a family CLOSE from Newcastle. On 4 April 2012 05:36, WGrice <wgrice@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > Hi all, > > This is my first request to the list and wondered if some kind soul could help me with a look up to solve a very long standing problem. > > For many years I have been trying to find the birth place and consequently the parents of my g.g.grandfather William Grice born 1803 (according to marriage cert, census,etc). Unfortunately each census gives a different birthplace i.e.- > 1841 census gives his birthplace as Y for Staffs. > > 1851 census gives NK (not known). > > 1861 census gives Newcastle. Staffs. > > 1871 census gives Wednesbury. Staffs. > > He died before the 1881 census. > > > I have searched all records over the years without success. However, he raised all his family in West Bromwich, so as a last desperate measure if I could find his Settlement Papers in the West Brom records, these should give his place of birth. He married Elizabeth Barnes 3 Nov 1823 at Walsall. Elizabeth was born in Wednesbury 1803. > > Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. > > Kind regards, > > Bill Grice. > ****************************** > ATTENTION TO ALL:- When replying please remove the details that do not apply to your mail and change the SUBJECT LINE for best useage of ARCHIVED MATERIALS. > ------------------------------- > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to STAFFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Birthplaces on census are notorious for being incorrect. People put down where they believed they were born however they could have been born many miles away. Bill you say census states his birth year as 1803 well those I have seen suggest 1807 as his birth year. Was his marriage by licence or banns? If by licence have you tried seeing if the licence exists still? It is unlikely the settlement order exists but if you are lucky and assuming he actually went to the overseer's and applied for settlement it may well do. Have you tried locating a will which may offer an insight by naming a sibling who you can then try and locate? If he worked in a factory or similar enviroment have you tried to see if papers for that survive. Was he apprenticed? Unfortunately this may be one of those ancestors that are the preverbial brick wall Rob -----Original Message----- From: Norm Simcock <norm.simcock@gmail.com> To: staffordshire <staffordshire@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 22:58 Subject: Re: [STAFFORDSHIRE] Help I am looking forward to seeing any response to this question as I have a similar problem with a family CLOSE from Newcastle. On 4 April 2012 05:36, WGrice <wgrice@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote: > Hi all, > > This is my first request to the list and wondered if some kind soul could help me with a look up to solve a very long standing problem. > > For many years I have been trying to find the birth place and consequently the parents of my g.g.grandfather William Grice born 1803 (according to marriage cert, census,etc). Unfortunately each census gives a different birthplace i.e.- > 1841 census gives his birthplace as Y for Staffs. > > 1851 census gives NK (not known). > > 1861 census gives Newcastle. Staffs. > > 1871 census gives Wednesbury. Staffs. > > He died before the 1881 census. > > > I have searched all records over the years without success. However, he raised all his family in West Bromwich, so as a last desperate measure if I could find his Settlement Papers in the West Brom records, these should give his place of birth. He married Elizabeth Barnes 3 Nov 1823 at Walsall. Elizabeth was born in Wednesbury 1803. > > Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. > > Kind regards, > > Bill Grice. > ****************************** > ATTENTION TO ALL:- When replying please remove the details that do not apply to your mail and change the SUBJECT LINE for best useage of ARCHIVED MATERIALS. > ------------------------------- > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to STAFFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ****************************** ATTENTION TO ALL:- When replying please remove the details that do not apply to your mail and change the SUBJECT LINE for best useage of ARCHIVED MATERIALS. ------------------------------- ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to STAFFORDSHIRE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Bill, Please include name, date and location in your subject lines. Then you need to tell us where you've looked and all you've found. Family Search has only a couple of births for William Grice and three possible marriages, but suggests there are four possibilities in 1841. So my first query is how you know you have the right one? And as Michael pointed out, as well as a variety of birth places, there is no consistency of ages in census records. His birth seems to vary from 1802 - 1814. If you have found him in every census, you should know his wife's name. That could be a clue, as well as names of children. Have you found a marriage? Some local might be able to tell us if pre 1837 marriage PR's might show name of father. But he could also be non-conformist. A possible suggestion might be to search Ancestry Family Trees for William or any of his children. Peter