James Wears Mitchell

Middle name is Meirs on Scranton church records. It was quite a challenge to find the right James W. Mitchell, among the many James Mitchell's around the right age and place. Here's how the pieces came together. The marriage record for James and Elizabeth listed his father's name as David, and his occupation as Joiner. James' occupation, plumber & gas fitter, matches wtih his occupation in the USA. However, there is no suitable James Mitchell, living with a David Mitchell, anywhere in the British census records. We had a few extra bits of information. His middle initial is W. in several of the US census records. Also, his father's birthplace is listed as Scotland. Looking at the GRO index, we see James Wears Mitchell, birth registered in the first quarter of 1862, which is a partial match for his birth from the 1900 census, which shows October 1861. In the 1881 census, there is a James Mitchell, living with his grandmother, Jane Wears, clearly the same James. Backtracking Jane Wears, we find her daughter Ann and husband David Mitchell, born in Scotland, living with her in 1861 and 1871. Oddly, James is not with them, but with an uncle, Peter Mitchell, in 1871. Backtracking David we find him with Peter in Scotland in 1851 and 1841. Also, we find the marriage record for David Mitchell and Ann Wears in 1855, and a final piece is that David's occupation in 1871 is Joiner, matching the marriage record for James and Elizabeth. A lot of circumstantial evidence, but it all seems to hang together.