Ideas on tracing four Staffordshire brothers, possibly gone to USA

[K127]

Thank you so much for this SS, there's a lot for me to go through here. I appreciate your help

It boggles my mind that the four brothers might have just upped and left their wives and children back in Staffordshire all at roughly the same time!

[heywood]

My reply #1 - Herbert in Trenton, N J.he is a potter.
Trenton Historical Society mentions potters from Staffordshire. 
https://www.trentonhistory.org/His/Foreign.htm

The brothers may have intended for their families to follow but that did not happen for some reason. You never know.

Added
Just had a quick look at newspapers snippets and it looks as though Trenton potters were on strike in 18o4 and were supported financially by Staffordshire potters. There must have been close connections with the two areas.

[softly softly]

Believe this is Herbert (recorded as Robert) in 1870 US census.

SS

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M8K6-C92?lang=en

[K127]

Heywood - that's so fascinating, and explains the reasons behind the move. Thank you for that bit of context. Other branches of this line stayed in the Staffordshire pottery industry right up until about 15 years ago so everyone will be really interested to know about Carnalls potting across the pond.

SoftlySoftly - that's interesting that he was there by 1870. I will have to look to see if there was bad transcriptions for Henry too because that might explain why he's not popping up. Thank you for all this!

[K127]

Hello again,

This gets curiouser and curiouser. I popped the details from the Family Search results above (thank you again!) into my Ancestry tree and for Herbert John Carnall's "new" American wife, Elizabeth A, a lot of hints popped up. One was a Pension index - attached.

See the reference to an alias Joseph Berker!

I popped the name Joseph Berker into Ancestry and lo and behold, there's a civil war record for a Joseph Berker who was a potter born in England, of pretty much the right age.

The only question I have, the one question that makes me doubt this then is him (though all the signs point to it being him)  is in 1868 there is a bankruptcy notice back in the Staffordshire newspapers for Herbert. Does anyone know if he would have had to be physically in Staffordshire to have bankruptcy proceedings? I suppose he could have gone back and forth but from what little I understand of it, passage wasn't cheap.

[heywood]

He would have time between 1868 and 1870 to emigrate to USA - perhaps the bankruptcy proceedings were a catalyst for his moving. It looks as though he then used his father’s first name and his mother‘s maiden name as an alias for whatever reason – maybe the bankruptcy.

[K127]

Heywood - ah, good point about the names! It didn't even cross my mind somehow. It really must be him then, zigzagging across the atlantic. He fought in America in 1864-65 but then I've just found out he's had kids sometime back in Staffordshire between 67-69. And then he must have gone again.