The Perry immigrants to America
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Children of John and Susan Perry
Children of Edward and Eliza Perry:
Children of John and Winifred Perry:
Children of John and Susan Perry:
John Perry was born around 1836 in Kilboy, Tipperary. He went to Wisconsin, America with his brother Samuel to join their other two brothers Richard and Matthew around the year 1856 and he appears in the 1860 census for Door County as a farmer. This is the last record that we have of him. Various biographical records of the brothers that remained in Wisconsin say that he went to California and he may have died in Sacramento in 1902. However, a submission to the IGI states that he marred Jane in Wisconsin and died in 1864. As his brothers were in the Volunteer Infantry it is possible that he could also have been too and died during the civil war. He is named in his father's will in 1872.
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Samuel Perry was born in Kilboy on 12 April 1835. Along with his brother John, he joined his brothers Matthew and Richard in Ahnapee, Wisconsin in 1957 (although later records say that he emigrated in 1852). After farming like his brothers for a while he opened up a store in Ahnapee and later became the heaviest lumber buyer in the area. He firstly married Elizabeth, around the year 1862. They had 3 children:
- John Perry, born 1863
- Alice Perry, born 1866. She married [unknown] Birdsall.
- Edward Perry, born 1869, who probably died as a child.
Elizabeth died between the 1870 and 1880 census and within the same decade Samuel married Bertha. Their children were:
- Lydia Perry, born 1874. She married [unknown] Decker.
- Clara M Perry, born 1876. She married [unknown] Brown.
- Jeannie S Perry, born December 1878. She married [unknown] Dodge.
- William Perry, born July 1884.
- Maude Perry, born January 1887.
- Minnie Perry, born December 1878.
- An unidentified child who died.
By 1900 Samuel Perry's business had become very profitable and the family had a servant living with them in Ahnapee. He died 21 March 1906 and the probate of his will was granted to his wife. He left under $40,000. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Ahnapee (now Algoma) township.
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Matthew Perry was born in Kilboy sometime around the year 1836. He left Ireland for Liverpool around the yeat 1854 and sailed from there to Toronto, Canada. After spending two years in New York working as a farmhand, he took a boat to Chicago (the Lady Elgin) in Spring 1855. He didn't make it to Chicago, settling instead in Forestville, Wisconsin, with his brother Richard. Like his brother, Matthew was in the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, where he remained from 1861 until 1865. He farmed at Forestville until 1907 and then moved to Forestville Township. In 1867 he had married Henriette Machinsky, a German settler and together they had 8 children:
- Samuel Perry, born 27 July 1869. He married Imogene Heald (born 1877) in 1898 and together they had 4 children:
- Thomas Milton Perry (born 1898)
- Marion Perry (born 1902)
- Evelyn Perry (born 1905)
- Clinton Samuel Perry
- Matthew Perry, born February 1871.
- Henriette Perry, born 1873.
- John M Perry, born 1875. He married Alice Damkoehler of Sturgeon Bay on 22 October 1902. They had four children:
- Dorothy Alice Perry
- Walter Matthew Perry
- John William Perry
- Edward Lewis Perry
- Edward Perry, born May 1878.
- Thomas Perry, born 1880.
- Elizabeth Perry
- William Perry, born 1884.
Matthew Perry died on the 5th December 1915, the last of the four brothers to do so.
The Lady Elgin
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Richard Perry was born around 1840 in Kilboy. In around 1854 he left Ireland with his brother, Matthew and went to Liverpool, from where they set sail for America. They spent two years in New York and then another two years in Canada, from where they booked a passage to Chicago aboard the Lady Elgin. They wandered away from the boat at a stop in Mantowoc, Wisconsin and when they returned they discovered that the ship had left without them.
Richard and his brother settled in Forsetvill, Door County. Richard spent some time in the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry and bought 160 acres of land, which eventually grew to over 300 acres. He was postmaster of Forestville bweteen 1870 and 1881. In 1867 he married Anna Knopp, the Pensylvanian born daughter of Prussian immigrants. They had 7 children:
- William, born 1868 and died before 1870
- Susan, born May 1870
- Anna, born 1879
- Edward, born 1883
- Henry, born 1885
- Elizabeth, [1883]
Richard died in 1899 in Wisconsin.
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Children of Edward and Eliza Perry:
Francis Perry was named after his elder brother, who died before he was born. They would both have been named after their maternal grandfather, Francis Coffey, who died before either of them were born. He was born in Liscannor, county Clare and christened there on 27 April 1851. He went to San Francisco around the year. He married Annie and they had three children:
Francis died 10 May 1898 in San Francisco, California.
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Susan Perry, sometimes known as Susanna, would have been named after her paternal grandmother, Susan (Minchin) Perry. She was born 18 August 1853 in Liscannor, the eldest daughter of Edward and Eliza. She immigrated to America in either 1870 or 1872 and married Robert Faulkner, the son of Irish immigrants himself around the year 1875. Robert died some time before 1910 and in the 1930 census Susan is found living in a New York Hotel with her wealthy daughter, Elizabeth Henderson. Susan and Robert had three children:
- Elizabeth Faulkner, born August 1976 in Massachusetts. She married Thomas Chapman around 1895. They had a son:
- Thomas Chapman, born May 1896.
Elizabeth married for the second time Frank Clarence Henderson, a wealthy Texas businessman. In 1930 she was living at the St Hubert Hotel in New York with her widowed mother and sister. She died 21 November 1957 in New York and her large estate was the subject of an extensive lawsuit by some Irish Perry cousins who contested the will.
- Mary Faulkner, born May 1878. She married [unknown] Herreshoff around 1908. He died before 1930. She is thought to have lived in Palm Beach, Florida and died after 1930.
- Edward Faulkner born 3 April 1880 in Massachusetts. He died in Alameda County, California on 11 June 1940.
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Mary Perry was born on 12 Oct 1857 and christened in Liscannor Church on the following day. She joined her sister in Boston, Massachusetts in the year 1880 but settled in San Francisco, California, closer to her brothers. Her husband, William Roberts was an Englishman who had arrived in America in 1886. William and Mary had 6 children:
- William Frederick Roberts, born 13 April 1891.
He was married to Cora and they had 3 children.
He died 23 September 1982 in San Mateo County, California.
- Blanche Anne Roberts, born 14 April 1892. Died 13 June 1992 unmarried.
- Gladys M Roberts, born 14 April 1892. In 1930 she was still unmarried and living with her mother in San Francisco.
- Grace D Roberts, born 10 March 1894. She married [unknown] Wisnom and died 30 April 1986 in San Mateo County, California. The family appear to have owned a hardware store, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005.
- Percy Edward Roberts, born 28 April 1895. He was married to Elizabeth and died 17 May 1985 in San Francisco, California.
- Raymond J Roberts, born 17 January 1901. Died 23 February 1968 in San Francisco, California. He had two children.
The Roberts Family
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Mary wrote several letters to her brother James' mother-in-law, Catherine Caffrey who lived in Monasterevin, county Kildare. Read them here.
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Edward Perry was baptised in Liscannor on 15 June 1860. His godparents were Francis Perry (this may be a mistake for Francis Coffee, his uncle) and Miss Mary Finnucane. He immigrated to America in 1882 or 1883 and shortly after married Margaret Flanagan, also an Irish Immigrant. In 1888 he became a naturalised American citizen. Edward and Margaret had seven children:
- Ellen Perry, born 31 July 1886. She married John Sharon in 1904. They had four children. She died 25 November 1954.
- Edward F Perry, born 31 August 1887. He married Helen McKenna. They had a son.
- James Aloysius Perry, born 16 January 1891. He married firstly Clarice Gonzenbach on 29 May 1912. He married secondly Vera Charlotte Muncey on 1 September 1921 and they had a son.
- Elizabeth Perry, born 16 September 1893.
- Joseph Perry, born 11 September 1895. He married three times: to Blanche, Hilda and Bernice. He had three children from his third marriage and died 1 February 1981.
- Mary Therese Perry, born 27 December 1896
- Francis Perry, born 25 April 1898
Edward and Margaret Perry
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Patrick Perry was born 4 November 1862 and baptised in Liscannor Church two days later. He immigrated in 1884 and in 1900 is found in San Francisco with his brother, Edward and his family. He died 6 February 1916.
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Children of John and Winifred Perry:
Two of the children of John Perry (the son of Edward and Eliza that remained in Liscannor) appear to have also emigrated and the ship manifest records that give details of their journey survive.
Lizzie Perry sailed on the ship Etruria. She left Cobh (then known as Queenstown) on 25 September 1898, arriving in New York on 2 October 1898 aged 11 years and 10 months. Her passage had been paid by her father, and she had $7.50 with her when she arrived on American soil. According to the ship manifest, she was joining her uncle in Milton, New York but this uncle is so far unidentified.
The Etruria
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Mary J Perry sailed on the ship Lucania. She left Cobh on 21 April 1907 and arrived in New York 6 days later. Her final destination however was San Francisco. Her uncle, Edward Perry had paid her passage to America and she was joining him at his residence at 3219 16th Street. She was 23 years old at the time and is described in the manifest as 5 feet tall with a fair complexion, grey eyes and brown hair.
The Luciana
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Sources:
- American Census returns: 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930 (on Ancestry)
- California Death Index
- US Social Security Death Index (Family Search)
- The History of Door County, volume II (Chicago, 1917)
- Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Brown, Kenauwee and Door, Wisconsin (Chicago, 1895).
- Soldiers' and Citizens' Album of Biographical Record Containing Personal Sketches of Army Men and Citizens..... (Grand Army Publishing Company, 1888)
- Wisnom's Hardware Store
- Roberts Market website
- Probate of Samuel Perry, 1906
- Obituary of Samuel Perry, 1906
- Letters from Mary Perry (later Roberts) to Catherine Caffrey (sent to me by a Caffrey cousin)
- Ellis Island Website
- Family history notes from Sean Perry
Ship images from: Norway Heritage
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Perry Family