Yeah you are right Dave. Having a brain freeze or something on the Census. It was the age and the address of the burial record that made me doubt it. But like I said the memorials in the papers confirmed it was the one I was looking for.
Willie seems to have several birth places - in 1881 he is born Brightside. In 1911 he says Caroliff, Wales and I wonder if that could be Catcliffe, Wales Sheffield.
Someone on Ancestry is researching the same family and it actually shows Willies birth certificate in Sheffield 21 May 1855. Father James mother Ann formerly France
Another interesting fact - Willie was living next door to Mary Ann Kelly in Leighton Buzzard on the 1901 census. They married in Sheffield 1905
That would be one of my cousins in Sheffield, we have been sharing information. We have traced the Williams family back to the 1770's and are filling in some missing details like when our great grandfather died.
Leyton Buzzard is interesting, not sure how the family got there but 3 of my grandfather's siblings were born there and his mother is buried there. Willie had a history of marrying women who lived on the same street as him and his wife. That is how he met his second wife in Sheffield.
I have seen 6 censuses that Willie Williams is in and his birth place changes between Sheffield and Cardiff and back again. It was only when i saw a birth certificate that I knew he was born in Sheffield. It was the same with my grandfather, who we always thought he was born in Cardiff, but we have a birth certificate that says he was born in Sheffield. Not sure if that is the Census takers fault or whether Willie who seemed to be a bit of a rouge fibbing to the Census takers.
Sue and Chris.
I am certain that the 1911 census record does not say Cardiff. That looks like a mistranscription. The word definitely starts CA and ends LIFF with 2 letters between. What do others think please?
Also there is no doubt that in 1855 the village of Catcliffe,as Sue has said, was in the Ecclesiastical district of Wales. The village is still there about 6 miles east of Sheffield centre.
As far as I know the 1911 census return form was provided beforehand to each address and the household completed it. Therefore presumably Willie himself wrote it, not the enumerater. So it cannot be a mishearing by the enumerator.
What is his birth address as recorded on his birth cert?
Dave