Help with Staffordshire place name

[mummybongo]

Could anyone help me decipher the top of the two birthplace names shown below please?

They are the same person on both the 1851 and 1861 censuses. It looks like 'Bechels' or 'Birchell' but I can't find anything that seems to match it,

There's another word on the 1851 census that I can't make out at all but wondered if anyone recognised it?

Many thanks

Do you know if this is a county in England/Scotland/Europe or could it be anywhere in the world?

I found this https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Place:Birchills%2CStaffordshire%2CC_England
It seems like it's south Staffordshire near Walsall

Birchall?

Do you know where in Staffordshire - north/south? Birches Head is in the North

There is a place in Staffordshire called birchall

There’s a village called Birchall just south of Leek.

Also, near Shifnal, Shropshire?

Salop is the other name for Shropshire, the town is Shifnal.

It's here maps.apple.com/?address=Green%20Lane,%20Walsall,%20WS2,%20England&ll=52.593196,-1.991740&q=Green%20Lane&t=m

I'm assuming it's in Staffordshire, England but I don't know whereabouts. I can't seem to find his birth records, and his death record says he was born in 'Richards Castle, Shropshire' so I'm not sure if

a) one of them is a mistake
b) the 2 places are very close to each other
c) I'm looking at the records of two different people!

His wife's name is the same on all records and children's names and ages match, as do the address details which I've cross-referenced. I've got the name of his father as well and first name of his mother but can't find their birth details either!

His surname is 'Pinches' which has some weird and wonderful spellings which doesn't help. My mum also thinks there was an Eastern European connection around the late 1700s/early 1800s so perhaps it's a name that changed on its way from another country.

There to Shifnal would make more sense than Leek. Only 20 mild between the two.

Thank you! This could be the place

Yes his wife was born and lived in Shifnal and he moved there when they got married.

There is a place called Bircher Common about 3 miles from Richards Castle (although I think it's over the border in Herefordshire - no idea if the border has changed). The illegible word on the 1851 census looks like it could be 'Common'. Wouldn't explain why the 1861 census looks different, though.

Ah that's interesting thank you. That word could possibly be Common, I was thinking it began with an R. I'll check it out - much further away though.

Could the other word be 'assumed'?

Have you had any success in finding any of his siblings? If you can locate them on the censuses it might shed some more light on things.

Have you tried a search on Freereg.org.uk? I did a quick search on Pinches baptised between 1820 and 1840 and pretty much all the records were west Midlands or Lincolnshire and there weren't many, so that might help (although freereg is patchy on which parishes are included) https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_queries/653598fac23330632f112e5b?locale=en. (You can tell I'm at brick walls with all of my research and therefore bored!)

Birchills in Walsall (it’s right on the edge of the town centre) is now West Midlands but historically was Staffordshire.

Birchall common and then Birchall?

The siblings I thought were his were all born in Shifnal, so I'm starting to wonder if I'm getting mixed up with two different people now

They seem to be a bunch of criminals - 2 of his brothers were shipped off to Tasmania in the 1840s so they disappear from UK Censuses. I feel like I've been looking at this for ages and now I'm not sure if I've even got the right family at all!

Have you compared first names between his parents/siblings and his children, esp if they have unusual names? IME people often used family names for their children (obviously they might also have used his wife's siblings names) and whilst it's obviously not conclusive, it can help build a picture.

Are his Shifnal siblings younger than him - i.e. could the family have moved there after his birth? If so, can you find his parents' deaths in Shifnal?

@mummybongo What records have you been using to get back to him?

If you think you may have gone wrong somewhere, then go back to the start and begin again with more recent records you can confirm are correct. Then work backwards and sideways, using all the available official records, including things like witnesses on marriage certificates, who are usually immediate or extended relatives of some sort or other. Never rely on trees or other records submitted by other researchers to Ancestry or wherever. Always use official BMD records, transcripts of parish registers and the like.

Don't assume he's your man. Just because you found someone of the right name of the right age in around the right area, that doesn't mean anything. When you are doing online searches, remember to leave the parameters as wide as possible and don't narrow it down too much. For instance, if you are looking for John Smith and search only for that, then you might miss the Henry J Smith who is actually your man.

I've started again on more than one occasion as I keep getting myself confused with this one! I never use any of the trees already on Ancestry etc but try to find original records that I know will prove the facts.

I think that he's got 5 siblings, trouble is I can't remember where I got that from now and I can't seem to find the evidence for it. I obviously need to write a note for everything I find as well as saving the source document.

The reason I'm so invested in him is because 'a' Francis Pinches married a Catherine Pidgeon back in 1801 which, if it's my relative would mean I think I can trace my tree right back to the 1300s and earlier to Knights and Kings.

So I'm trying to prove it to show the rest of my family but I keep getting stuck on this chap! I'm fine from now back to him. And from Catherine back is documented via various family history sites already. I just can't prove he's the same one she married.

@mummybongo Have you searched for any wills?

Not yet no, not unless they've come up in searches on Ancestry or Find My Past. Is there better place to find them? I'm thinking of taking a trip to Shifnal as it's not too far from me.