To answer your question,yes, the Pierce in my great great grandfather James Pierce Whitney was a family surname. His mother's name was Caroline Pierce and his father was Joseph Whitney. ( My only brother has our mother's maiden name Osborne as his middle name too.) I don't have much information unfortunately on Caroline Pierce's family. They are one of my brick walls. What little I I've been able to find out about them has been either through my grandmother who is now deceased or through census records. Caroline was from Warren,VT. Her son James Pierce Whitney was born in Tunbridge,VT as was his father Joseph. Caroline and Joseph divorced at some point in time,a rare thing in the mid 1800's.Caroline is not buried in Tunbridge next to Joseph,who's grave I've visited. From the census I've been ale to determine that Caroline was named after her mother Caroline but I don't know what her mother's maiden name was. Her father was Amos Pierce and according to one census he was from Massachusetts. Where in MA it doesn't state so here is another dead end for me on my Pierce line. I strongly suspect he is somehow connected to an old MA Pierce family. I've seen the Pierce name often in my researching my family tree in old MA (Presently I have 37 ! lines in my tree going back to the 1600's in MA) I've seen how time and time again these old New England families intertwined through marriage too. One day I hope,as all we genealogists do,that I'll get a lead that will knock down this brick wall for me. (If anyone out there knows anything about these Pierces I'd be most appreciative if you shared what you know with me.) Noreen Maloney LaTour Burlington,VT