I may be able to help. My great grandfather was John Maxwell, who was listed in the Jersey City, NJ census resords as aged 54 in 1870, making his birth in the 1815 time period. He was Irish, and may have sailed on the Roscius out of Liverpool, arriving in the US on September 18th, 1850.
The only John Maxwell I could find in family search during the 1815 time period was one who was born in the Diocese of Connor and Down (Down or Armagh) in 1814. This John Maxwell seems to have married a Sarah Reid from Clogher, Co. Tyrone and fathered a child Eliza Maxwell in 1830. He also seemed to have married Mary Price in 1839, in the Diocese of Down and Conner. I have a Mary Maxwell and Eliza Maxwell with the right ages coming together to America. Arrived August 1, 1851 on Sir Colon Campbell, out of Belfast. This would mean that Sarah Reid died sometime prior to 1839, and John remarried Mary Price, then came to America and sent enough money over to Mary and Eliza the next year to follow him.
In addition to William Edward, there were 5 other children, Charles 1851, Catherine 1854, Thomas 1862, Elizabeth 1865, and Joseph 1868. This family was Roman Catholic. John’s wife (Mary?) died between 1868 and 1870, since she was not on the Census record for that year.
William Edward married Whilemina Brandl, and they had 11 children, including my grandfather Leonard Arthur Maxwell. Leonard Arthur married Anna Lawrence, and they had three children (Leonard Alfred (my father), Nancy and Susan). My father married Marguerite Jones (my mother), and had three children (Celia, Terrence (me), and Christopher).
Any information you can give me to confirm or contradict this information would be greatly appreciated.