Brick wall - a real long shot

[avm228]

Thanks Rob - will have a look 

[Bullard]

Hello Anna,

George Pierce b. 1769 is our earliest known ancestor too, so we would be delighted if you succeed in pushing the curtain back another generation or two. We are descended through Samuel Oliver Pierce b. 1800, and have a fairly complete list of his descendents down to the 1920s. Which of George's children is your ancestor?

Richard

[avm228]

Hello Richard and a warm welcome to Rootschat

I must say I am thrilled to bits to hear from a fellow Pierce researcher as there don't seem to be many of us around (despite the family's fecundity!).

I've made precisely zero progress on tracing this line further back, though recent releases of apprenticeship records and London land tax records add a bit of colour on our common ancestor George himself.

A summary of my direct line after George (5x g-gf) up to the 20thC is:

(4x g-gf) James Parker PIERCE (1764-1869) married (in England) Mary TIMBRELL
(3x g-gf) John Timbrell PIERCE (1831-1909) married (in England) Mary Jane MILWARD
(2x g-gf) John Timbrell Milward PIERCE (1862-1927) married (in Nebraska, USA) Anne Wylie MACGREGOR
(My g-gm) Mary Winifred PIERCE (1887-1940) married (in Asuncion, Paraguay) Frank MIDDLETON

My direct bit of the line has subsequently ended up back in England, though the American branch of the family is also thriving.

If you add a couple more posts to your name (which you can easily do by responding further to this thread) you will be able to use Rootschat's personal messaging system so that we can exchange family information away from the public boards.  I'd very much like to liaise further regarding our overlapping family tree.

Anna

[Bullard]

Anna, I am delighted that you are descended through James Parker Pierce, since he and Samuel Oliver Pierce continued to operate George Pierce's jewellery business after their father died.  Do you know much about James Parker Pierce or the jewellery shop?

We have an interesting journal written by Samuel Oliver Pierce in the 1850s of a tour he made of the United States, including a visit he made to the White House in an (unsuccessful) attempt to pay his respects to President Franklin Pierce.

Samuel Oliver Pierce (1800-1885) is my 2x g-gf

Richard

[MaggiMae]

Hi Richard I am also descended from Samuel Oliver through his son Septimus and through his son Henry I also Have a copy of the 1853 journal and would also very much like to go further back but also come up against a brick wall but at least I now have a picture of Samuel from the internet and know where his grave is its amazing what you can achieve through google I wander what he would have thought!!  Margaret

[avm228]

Hi Margaret and welcome It's great to hear from another Pierce descendant.

Also: apologies to Richard, as I don't seem to have responded to his last post.  I know that there was a jewellery business, based at 9 Richmond Buildings, Soho, inherited by James Parker Pierce and Samuel Oliver Pierce from their father, but little more about the business than that.  JPP lived at Clifton Lodge, The Grove, Kentish Town (the house is no longer standing) and busied himself with being a Justice of the Peace for St Pancras and, in the early 1850s, churchwarden for St Pancras parish. 

JPP died in January 1869 and his widow Mary (nee Timbrell) purchased a grave at Highgate Cemetery were he was buried (as was Mary in due course).  Their eldest son John Timbrell Pierce and his wife Mary (nee Milward) are also buried there. The gravestone has recently been cleared of its ivy and its inscription is legible again.

The 1853 journal sounds fascinating! Was it thought there was a family connection with President Franklin Pierce, or was it just the coincidence of surnames which prompted the visit to the White House?

[MaggiMae]

Hi Anna, George and Betsy have a Headstone in Kensal Green Cemetery along with Samuel Oliver and one of Samuel's children Thomas who was buried at sea. Samuel talks about loosing a son in his journal whilst he was touring America so I presume that this was him.  After the partnership between James and Samuel was dissolved Samuel went on to become a Coach Master.  If you google Samuel  there is a picture of him and also his house in Twickenham Ryde Lodge (just over the Richmond Bridge) It is still in use but I don't know what for. I find this a fascinating journey and apart from a piece in an e book from Burke's which states that George was originally from Chepstow Monmouthshire I am unable to go further back Regards Margaret

[avm228]

Burke's which states that George was originally from Chepstow Monmouthshire

Oooh Margaret - this is news to me! As you can see in the inherited family tree I posted earlier in the thread, it was thought the family was "originally from Wales".

Have you still got the Burke's extract, or can you recall which edition mentioned this?  I have library access to some of Burke's.

Thanks also for the info about the Kensal Green grave - I didn't know about that either

[avm228]

Have now found the online bit of Burke's - thanks.