Dawn's Family History Journey

  CHARLES H. PIERCE was likely born in January 1854 or 1855 in Maryland to parents William Clarke Pierce and Sarah A. (Rogers) Pierce. [1]   His birth date is not definitively known – prior to 1865, it was not required to keep a record of births in Maryland, and only church birth records were available.   Unfortunately, a church birth record for Charles has not been found. [2]   His birth date has been arrived at by examining the following documents: Table 1   Evaluating the documents in Table 1 provides a birth month most likely of January.  The 1900 census provides a stated (not calculated) birth month of January, and the death certificate supports a calculated birth month of January.  For birth year, although multiple documents created later in Charles’ life show a probable birth year of 1855, the earliest documents available (i.e., the 1860 and 1870 censuses) indicate a birth year of 1854.   So, unless an actual baptism or birth record exi...

LAURA VIRGINIA (GIBSON) WYLIE was probably born on 17 January 1874, likely in Philadelphia, but definitely in Pennsylvania, to parents Edward Gibson and Elizabeth (Wray) Gibson. This information was arrived at via the proof summaries below.   Supporting Conclusion #1: Laura Virginia Gibson was born on 17 January 1874 There is no birth certificate available, as Philadelphia did not have birth registrations until 1893. [1] All records found with a birth date or age are provided in Table 1 below. Table 1 Based on the available documents listed in Table 1, Laura could have been born any time between 1872 and 1878. A deeper look at the 1878 baptism document (where five children of Edward and Elizabeth Gibson were baptized) and 1880 census information (the oldest available census with the children) is shown in Table 2 - this will help to narrow down Laura’s birth year. Table 2 In both lists, it appears that the children are listed in birth order. John Wesley’s birth date of March...