Back to the Perry Family
I’ve decided to add a blog to my family tree website. I have a few reasons for doing this; mainly for myself to keep track of my thoughts and things I’ve got to do. It’s very difficult to find time to do any research when you’ve got a full-time job and other commitments, so by making notes here I may remind myself where we’re up to and what’s next. It also gives other people an idea of the way my research is going, so maybe I can help others with suggestions or receive suggestions myself.
My main genealogy dream at the moment is to find out where John Perry of Kilboy was born and who his parents were. I’m not the only person working on this family- there are many other Kilboy descendants and a lot of us seem to have inherited the genealogy gene! Most notably Karen Bell, whose website is here: www.jessandra.de/PerryofIreland.htm
We only found out we were Kilboy descendants for sure last year when my dad did a DNA test. We were fairly sure from circumstantial evidence that our Edward Perry of Liscannor, Clare, was the eldest son of John and Susan (Minchin) Perry, John being the grandson of the John mentioned in the previous paragraph. However, we had no proof, so my dad submitted a DNA sample, which we tested against a known descendant of John’s brother, William. It matched all 25 markers and gave us the proof we needed. Before this, we’d been researching the Liscannor Perrys and their origins for years. I’d been looking into it since I was about 16 and my uncle Sean had originally traced our family back to Edward in the 1980s, but had drawn a blank at finding out who his parents were. So we were stuck at a dead end for decades, but eventually had the breakthrough we needed and I’m sure the same will happen one day with John Perry of Kilboy.
Everyone is really looking forward to the second Perry family reunion in Tipperarynext month. Unfortunately the last one in 2006 was before I made contact with any other Perry researchers so I wasn’t able to go. This year, my mum and dad are coming along with a few other Perry descendants. I was in Kilboy last year and saw the land that our family owned and I’m really looking forward to going again. There’s an old well on the land, which is known locally as the Perry Well and is said to cure sick cows and eyes. A Perry descendant lives in a local village, and as far as I know, apart from my own great aunts and cousins, they are the only Kilboy Perrys left in Ireland.
Well, there is so much to write about and I don't want to do it all in one go! So I'm going to make a note for myself here that over the next few entries I'm going to cover the following topics: the reunion (in greater detail when we get back), Irish births, deaths and marriages, Liscannor Perry immigration to America, other Perry families in Ireland, possible origins of the Kilboy Perrys, Elizabeth Perry Faulkner (later Chapman, Pierce and Henderson- and nearly Rothschild), the mystery of Sarah Perry's death (1900), Irish sources (those we've used and those still need to be looked at), the 'violin' Perrys.....and more topics as I think of them.
Back to topI still don't have a computer or access to my ftp software, so I can't upload this yet, but hopefully we'll be getting it in the next week or two and once I've reinstalled everything this should be online!
My latest plans are to continue with my work on extracting all of the Perry births, deaths and marriages from the Irish civil registration indexes. I've got all of the deaths from 1864-1900 so far and I'm planning to begin on the births on Saturday at the Family History Center in London. Typing them up has made me realise what a common name in Ireland Perry actually is! It's much more common in the north, but these are branches that I know little about. But there are also clusters of southern Irish Perrys springing up that I didn't know about, so maybe it will help further the research. I don't know how the Perry project grew so huge! I suppose if we know about all of the Irish Perry families, it provides a context for our own research. Ideally I'd like to have a huge family tree one day, consisting of every single Irish Perry settler with a complete list of their descendants- I suppose it's something to work towards! So far there are several separate branches that have been identified. If the DNA testing has taught us one thing- it's that there wasn't one man who 800 years ago, lived underneath a pear tree and became the ancestor of all the Perrys alive today. In Ireland there are at least 4 distinct families and probably a lot more. But anyway, gathering together all of the Irish births, deaths and marriages and putting them into family groups in my genealogy software should hopefully allow us to identify all of the family groups and determine who belongs to which group. It may even help us to find more DNA contributors!
I'll write more next week, with the results of my research.
Back to topWell we had the Perry reunion in Tipperary last week and it was a great success! I’m going to put a few pictures in this report and the rest are on Facebook (if you’re my ‘friend you can see them on my profile, if you’re not on Facebook then click here and here to view all of the photos.
We arrived in Tipperary late in the evening, to find Karen and Joan (both descendants of Richard Perry, brother of ‘our’ John Perry and my uncle and his girlfriend, who had arrived before us. Here is a picture of the house.
We decided to have a relaxing day. First of all we went to Perry’s supermarket, in Ballinunty, Tipperary to visit our distant cousins, Billy and Alice. We were saddened to hear that Billy was unwell and he was later taken into hospital. Then we went to find the cathedral in Cashel, where we knew from records that Matthew Perry was buried there in 1850, so we decided to go and see if there was a headstone. Unfortunately one hadn’t survived, but we did find the gravestone of Matthew and Elizabeth perry, who died in 1930and 1966 respectively and are known to be from the Cahir Perry family.
We arrived back early as some more of our cousins were arriving from England. Stuart had matched my dad in the DNA test, so we were looking forward to meeting him again. His sister, Gean, was the eldest member of our family at nearly 90!
A small group of us decided to go to Liscannor in County Clare, where Edward Perry went to when he left Kilboy. We went to look in St McCreehy’s graveyard, where Edward, his wife and her parents would almost certainly have been buried. Unfortunately, its position on the west coast of Ireland, just yards from the sea meant that the headstones had been afforded little protection from the elements and thus most of them are illegible.
We then visited the Cliffs of Moher, just a couple of miles away from Liscannor. A new visitors’ centre had been built since our last visit and it was very impressive. The weather was beautiful and I got sunburnt for the first time ever in Ireland! Typically everyone ignored the signs and went along the cliffs for a better view. It’s a beautiful scenic area now, but it must have seemed a very harsh environment for Edward and his family, living there in the mid-19th century.
We stopped by the old Perry/Coffey house for a photo opportunity on the way back. The house belonged to the Lyons family in the 1960s, who are related somehow to the Perrys and as far as I know still own it, although they now live in America. I’ve contacted Clare Library about the family, who will hopefully put me in touch with someone who knows the family.
Friday was ‘Kilboy’ day. We went into Killenaule to buy Billy a get well card and to find the way to the old Perry lands. A lady in the post office told me that Jack, the current owner of Kilboy, would be back on his lunch break at one. We were there waiting for him when he returned and he was perhaps a little surprised to find a crowd of Perry descdndants on his doorstep! He very kindly took us up to the well and showed us where the old Perry house stood, before it was demolished in the 1960s.
We then went to the adjoining townland of Graystown, where the Perrys had also owned lands. Old ruins stand on the land and the photographers among us had a great time taking photos of them.
We then had to pick up the food for the party that night, from nearby Clonmel. As it wasn’t quite ready for us, we took the opportunity to have a look at Knocklofty House, which was previously owned by the Earls of Donaghmore. The first John Perry of Tipperary lived nearby as he was referred to as ‘of Knocklofty’ on deeds. The house is now a hotel .
We had a wonderful meal on the Saturday night. The food was fantastic and everyone got dressed up and had a good time! We took the opportunity to take some group photos before dinner.
Some of our guests left on Saturday morning and the rest of us were the worse for wear and so we all decided to have a relaxing day! A few of us went to the Rock of Cashel and we took it easy in the evening, eating the left overs from the night before. During our stay, we’d made friends with the local animals, even the fox, who was semi-tame and came close enough to let us take photographs! He certainly enjoyed the left over salmon from the previous night.
A Woodrooffe descendant and his family visited us for the final day. After they had arrived we walked around the gardens and were then taken on a tour of Greenane House, where we were staying. There were a lot of family portraits to look at, as the Mansergh family had lived in the house for hundreds of years. They even showed us their amazing play room, which had been painted from top to bottom with scenes from a children’s book!
We headed back to Dublin slightly later than planned and stayed at auntie Ruby’s house, who is the last of the Perrys from Edward Perry’s line remaining in Ireland. It was a shame to get back to the windy and wet UK the following day when we’d had such a wonderful week in Ireland, and everyone is looking forward to the next reunion!
Well I haven't done an update in a while, as I'm immersed in wedding planning at the moment! But there are one or two note-worthy points to mention.
Firstly, we may have discovered two more possible children of John Perry and Mary Hughes. If you have looked at the rest of this site, you will see that there are several possible (but unproven) children of this couple. A newly discovered Perry- Thomas Perry, who died in 1833, may also be a son, along with his brother, John Perry of Cataganstown. Having died at this time, he appears to have been the correct age to have been a child of John and Mary (their other suspected children were born in the 1760s and 1770s). It is also possible they could both be grandsons, and if this is the case it is likely that there is a connection to William Perry of Cataganstown who died in 1794. Unfortunately the administration of Thomas' estate yielded few clues, other than his date of death (February 1833) and that his executor, John Perry of Cataganstown, was also his brother. Work, as ever, is on-going.
As I can't get to Ireland until early next year, I am having to console myself with abstracting Irish Perrys from records that are accessible to me here in England. This family history is rapidly turning into a one-name study! I am collecting details of civil registrations (i.e. births, deaths and marriages) of all Irish Perrys and also those parish registers that appear on-line. I am also part-way through the process of collecting all of the deeds in the Registry of Deeds that relate to Perry family members and their associates.
I am also in the process of testing out some new software. A lot of the companies offer trial versions of their software and I have been road-testing a few. My favourite so far is Roots Magic, and I am in the process of adding 15 files of notes to my database (and that's just the Perry side!). I hope to get a few Gedcoms on the website once it's all up to date.
Back to topI just thought that an update might be in order as it's been a few months since I wrote one. I've been too busy planning a wedding to do any family history! I don't have any especially exciting news, but I do have a trip to Ireland planned for May, when I can go and look at the parish registers in the National Library, which have recently been opened to the public. Hopefully I'll be able to fill in a few gaps.
Some interesting news on the Quartermain side of the family is that I've recently been in touch with a (probably very) distant Q cousin who has gained permission to republish William Fowler Carter's Quatremains of Oxfordshire, which is just about the most impossible book in the world to get hold of. I've been looking for years, yet I only have a partial photocopy, so the re-publication will be very welcome to Quartermain researchers. As part of the project, I am going to visit a few of the place in Oxfordshire associated with the Quartermain family soon to take a few photographs.
I still haven't got any new software, but I have purchased a new website hosting package, which means that visitors can actually see the links at the top of the page, instead of them being hidden!
I am busy working on a new version of this website to include all of the information that I have on the various Irish Perry families. Therefore the focus of it will change from being about ‘my family history’ to details of all the Irish Perry families, their origins and descendants. It is taking rather a long time to do, but it will be worth it in the end! I’ll keep links up though so that my other family research is still available on-line.
I am continuing with creating databases of all the Irish Perrys. I nearly have complete databases for the birth, death and marriages up to 1900. I’m gradually accumulating certificate details as well- fortunately many of them are available to view for free at our local family history centre. I’m getting hold of a few deeds a month as well, but they don’t have much more information in than I have already and unfortunately they’ve gone up in price, which with the exchange rate means that the cost has almost doubled. I’m particularly hoping that some of the ones I have on order will fill in some gaps about the Clonmoher (Clare) Perrys, enabling me to link them in with the Formerla (Clare) Perrys.
I have a trip to Ireland booked in May, which will be my first opportunity to look at some of the Tipperary Catholic parish registers. These were closed to the public for many years, but now it is possible to view microfilmed copies at the National Library, which is a huge boost for Tipperary researchers. I only have 2 days, but hopefully I’ll get chance to see a few parishes and to fill in some gaps. Although the early Perrys were Protestant, some of the later ones married Catholic women and had their children baptised as Catholics (including our branch)
Back to topFor the last few weeks I have been researching two Perry families, one English and one Irish, who may or may not be connected. The Clonmoher Perrys lived in Ireland in the 17th century. They appear to have been granted lands in county Clare in 1639. Common names in the family are George, Hugh, Ambrose and Thomas and I am trying to link together the people that I have found in deeds, parish registers and other records to create a tree. Sometimes research can create questions as well as answering them. For example, a Hugh Perry who was said to have been killed during the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 appears in church records to have been buried 2 weeks before the battle took place! There are very few records available for this time and it’s like trying to do a jigsaw that has most of its pieces missing.
The Clonmoher Perrys are said in records in the genealogical office in Dublin to descend from a Gloucestershire family. There are several families of the name in Gloucestershire at the time, but I have been mainly researching the Hunter alias Perry family from Wotton under Edge, near Bristol. There is evidence to suggest that this family may be the same family that ended up on the west coast of Ireland: firstly that the first name ‘Hugh’ is popular in both families, secondly that there is a connection through the Juxons (Hugh Perry’s daughter in law’s daughter from her second marriage married Christopher Wren, whose uncle was archbishop of Ely at the same time as William Juxon was archbishop of London) and thirdly, we know that we are looking for an armorial family, of which the Wotton under Edge family is only one of two such families in Gloucestershire.
Having used wills, estate papers, marriage settlements, parish registers and the Heralds’ Visitations to put together a basic tree, I am hoping to put a new page on the website soon. At the moment, I don’t know where the Clonmoher Perrys fit in with the Wotton under Edge Perrys (if at all) but there is still plenty of material to use to try and establish the roots of this Irish settler family. I have visited Northamptonshire Record Office recently as one of the Wotton Under Edge Perrys (Jane) married Sir William Fitzwilliam (later Lord Fitzwilliam). Her son Edward (from her marriage to her cousin, Robert Perry) died at the height of the civil war and there is a monument erected in his memory in the parish church of Marholm, near Peterborough, where the Fitzwilliam estate was.
I go to Ireland next Saturday and will spend some time looking at the newly opened parish registers for Tipperary, where I hope to find some of the Kilboy Perrys. I'm also planning to look at some Genealogical Office manuscripts to help solve the mysteries of some earlier families.
Back to topI haven't had time for much genealogy over the last few months as I've been so busy with work. Actually, when I say that, I mean I haven't had time for my own family history. I've been really busy researching the Victorian servants at Hatfield House where I work. I've got details of all of the 18 servants who worked there in 1846, when Queen Victoria visited the house and I've discovered a few new sources along the way, including the Naturalisation Papers at the National Archives (Series HO 1). I've become quite attached to the French Chef who worked there, Casimir Tessier, and I wish he was one of my relations! I also found details of my husband, Andrew's great grandfather's service record in the First World War. Many of these were destroyed during the Second World War, so we were lucky to find there were twenty pages of details regarding his service, and other records including his medals, his widow's pension and his medical form. The records are available on Ancestry.
I still have a 75% ready new and improved website on my computer, waiting to be uploaded once I've had a chance to finish it. I have a week booked off work next month so I hope to get it up then. I've been toying with the idea of getting a new domain name for the Perry stuff and keeping this one for the other families, but I don't want to lose all my hard won Google ratings!
My one name study into the Irish Perrys is continuing, albeit rather slowly. Hopefully during my week off I'll get more it done. More sources have been released- in particular most of the 1911 Irish census.
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