James Bird, b.1754. No record until 1800

[andrew__85]

Hi all,

I wonder if any of you have any ideas.
The furthest back I can get down the paternal line is to James Bird.  He married at St Peters Wolverhampton in the early 1800s to Mary Lea, and had two children, Charles and Catherine.  He was buried at St Leonard in Bilston in 1834 aged 80.  We have a note which states a third daughter of theirs, Jane died in 1837 (feb 12th) at the age of 23 (4 days after her mother), I can find no record of her birth though. 
My main interest is finding some record of James Bird, I suspect he moved to Bilston, but from where and why I am unsure.   If any of you have any ideas or records you can look through please let me know.  It seems odd to me that he should pop up aged 46 in Bilston, with no prior records....?

Many thanks,
Andrew

[linell]

Confused here, did James Bird die aged 80 in 1834 Bilston then appeared again aged 46??  If James and Mary Lea Married Wolverhampton, they could well have lived in Bilston at the time of their marriage.  Sorry having trouble following this post??

Linell.

[Lynntony]

Hi Andrew

FamilySearch have the marriage of James Bird to Mary Lea at St Peter's as the 11th Dec 1803. If James was 46 at the time of the marriage that would put his birth at around 1757. There is a record of a James Bird born 1758 in Shifnal, Shropshire. The search revealed  48 people of that name born around that period - some earlier, some later. Check out the records at -

http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch/start.html#p=home

Tony

[andrew__85]

That is the correct marriage, in 1803.

Linel:  He didn't pop up again. Its just he furthest back I can find him is at this mariage, and I find it odd that he should appear here with no parental information, no birth place and seemingly not be of that parish (as I can't find any birth records for him at bilston).

Thanks all for looking, I will look at the Shifnal line tonight, and see if I can get it to add up.

Thanks again, Andrew

[Lynntony]

Andrew

The record for James born at Shifnal gives the parents as Henry Bird and Mary.

The slight age difference, regarding the death aged 80, is probably down to people not celebrating their birthdays in the fashion we do today and sometimes just hazarding a guess at their actual age.

Tony

[Lynntony]

Additional

There's a record of a Charles Bird, born 25th Dec 1804, but can't find Catherine's birth.  There are 7 records for a Jane Bird born Bilston but the parent's names don't match!

Tony

[linell]

That is the correct marriage, in 1803.

Linel:  He didn't pop up again. Its just he furthest back I can find him is at this mariage, and I find it odd that he should appear here with no parental information, no birth place and seemingly not be of that parish (as I can't find any birth records for him at bilston).

Thanks all for looking, I will look at the Shifnal line tonight, and see if I can get it to add up.

Thanks again, Andrew

Hi Andrew parents weren't recorded on Marriage entries before 1837.  Maybe James was baptised at a Non Conformist Chapel or not baptised at all?  It's not easy trying to find people pre 1800, a lot of records have not survived from that period.  Good luck with your serach from Linell.

[linell]

You could try Dudley Archives for settlement papers, directories, parish rates, parish poor law payments, bastardy papers, apprenticeship records, court proceedings, muster rolls, protestation rolls, hearth tax, visitation records... Settlement and removal examinations.  Would take a good few hours of search time though!