Cyril Eric Pearce

[James18]

I've been sent a scan of the Peggy / Cyril marriage certificate, and Cyril's father is given as Charles Pearce, railway carpenter. There's a 1911 census for a Charles Pearce born ~1862, occupation 'Carpenter L N R Railway' in Newport Pagnell.

It is possible that A.L. Pearce (witness) is A.J. Pearce, which could be Charles' wife from the 1911 census, Alice Jane Pearce. It doesn't really look like a J to me, but I've been wrong plenty of times before when it comes to handwriting on official certificates!

It does not say that Charles is deceased, though, so I don't know whether he'd still be alive and working as a railway worker, or he's dead and used to be a railway worker. If the former, then it can't be the man on the 1911 census.

I wonder if this could lead us to Cyril, or is perhaps simply a red herring?

[JayG]

A tree on Ancestry has Charles dying in 1936 and his wife Alice Jane nee Hill dying in 1935.

[James18]

Originally Posted by JayG

A tree on Ancestry has Charles dying in 1936 and his wife Alice Jane nee Hill dying in 1935.

What are the children's names?

[JayG]

Only one child, Winifred Alice born 1905.

[kiterunner]

I didn't realise that you hadn't actually seen the marriage cert before, James. I remember I spent a while looking for a likely Charles Pearce who was a guard with no luck!

There are many Pearce / Hill births on FreeBMD; might take a while to figure out which ones belong to Charles and Alice but I don't see an obvious one for Cyril at the moment.

[Merry]

Where did the cert copy come from? If it's from the GRO then the initials for the witness will only be as accurate as the person(s) copying the information from one place to another!

[James18]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

I didn't realise that you hadn't actually seen the marriage cert before, James. I remember I spent a while looking for a likely Charles Pearce who was a guard with no luck!

Cyril's occupation is given as railway guard on Peggy's death certificate (1959), and coffin maker on their marriage certificate (1953). However, on the latter his father's occupation is given as railway carpenter, which is why that 1911 census stood out to me. It's just a stab in the dark, though, and it would mean that Charles was quite old by the time Cyril was born.

I assume Cyril died after 1959 because Peggy is described as 'wife of Cyril Pearce', and not as a his widow, or that he is deceased.

They are both given as age 35 on the marriage certificate, which would put Cyril's birth at around 1916-1918 (Peggy's is 29/09/17) -- there are a couple of Cyril E Pearce births around that time, but assuming Eric was indeed his middle name then both can seemingly be ruled out by death records on Ancestry.

I have scans of Peggy's birth, marriage and death certificates, but so far no confirmed birth or death for Cyril.

[James18]

Originally Posted by Merry

Where did the cert copy come from? If it's from the GRO then the initials for the witness will only be as accurate as the person(s) copying the information from one place to another!

It's a GRO copy from 2017. I have been e-mailed a very clear photograph of it.

[James18]

There's a Cyril E Pearce born 08/06/1923 on the 1939 Register, living in Maidenhead. I assume he's dead because his details come up. Looks to have older brothers named Reginald and John. The father's name is Charles T Pearce, so I just wondered whether someone could check the father's occupation for me. Is there a Cyril E Pearce death matching a 1923 DOB?

I am just working on the assumption that perhaps Cyril was younger than Peggy, and lied about his age on the marriage certificate -- not uncommon when the bride was a number of years older than the groom.

Thank you!

[kiterunner]

That Charles is a Public works constructor's heavy labourer:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...nSearchResults