Monday, June 05, 2023

A Parry Puzzle - Rosina Jane Parry in 1921

Last year, when the 1921 census was released, I looked for my ancestors who I knew should be recorded in there, along with their closest relatives.  Although I did find most of the people I expected to, there were one or two that eluded me.  One of those that I was unable to find was Rosina Jane Parry, the sister of my grandfather, Donald Parry.

Rosina was born in Hereford, in April 1905.  Her mother died later that month, as a result of giving birth, so Rosina and her brother were brought up by their father, John, no doubt assisted by other members of the family, as well as friends.  John then died in 1918, when Donald was fourteen and Rosina aged thirteen.  They were each taken in by different relatives - in Rosina's case, I believe it was her aunt, Mary Parry, formely ROBERTS, the widow of John's brother, Thomas.

The family story is that Rosina then went to London when she was sixteen, ie round about the time of the 1921 census.

I recently returned to searching for her, trying various spellings and also missing out information, such as her surname.  I was intrigued to discover an entry for a "Rosina J TARY", born 1905, working as a servant in St George's Hanover Square, London, Middlesex, and giving her birthplace as Toronto, Canada.  The age would be exactly right for Rosina Parry, since the 1921 census was taken in June that year.

I have sometimes found TARY/TARRY as mistranscriptions for PARRY, which was one reason for taking a closer look at the entry.  And, comparing the "T" of TARY to the "T" of Toronto, the former does seem to be more curved, as if it could be a "P":



But there are some other "P"s on the page, which are more completely curved, so I could be wrong:



Another reason for taking a closer look at the entry was that, in 1924, Donald went out to Canada.

I have been unable to find any relevant entries for Rosina J TARY (or PARRY) in Canada, or entering the UK.

So, is it possible that Rosina and her brother, Donald, perhaps unhappy at the circumstances they found themselves in after their father died, dreamt of leaving and going to Canada - and that, having moved to London, Rosina adopted that as her birthplace?  [I have no evidence as to whether Rosina "ran away" to London, or whether it was with her aunt's blessing.] 

Am I making too big an assumption that this could be 'my' Rosina?

Can any of you reading this find evidence in other records that would prove the existence of the Rosina J TARY, and therefore prove my assumption wrong? 

 







Sunday, May 21, 2023

Tempus Fugit

I spent a very enjoyable day yesterday, meeting up with several of the local members of the Guild of One-Name Studies.

We discussed a variety of topics, including:

    - the difficulty of identifying (or even realising!) what has happened in a case where someone marries a second spouse who has an identical name and birth year/parish to their first spouse, 

    - the availability of mother's maiden names in indexes such as the UK General Register Office, 

    - navigating the Guild's web site, 

    - what would happen to our study if we were to die today, and the various options for preserving our data on the Guild site, such as the Members' Websites project (https://one-name.org/the-members-websites-program-mwp/  ).  

    - how the Guild began and the background to some Guild projects, such as the Marriage Challenges and the Marriage Locator (https://one-name.org/marriage-locator/ ), 

    - what records are available to help with finding graves in a local cemetery.

In the course of chatting about data storage, and the types of files to keep, the question of the collection of 'Births, Deaths and Marriages' arose and was it worth keeping spreadsheets of these, now that the entries are so easily available on many sites.  I think some One-Namers no longer collect them in that format, but I still see some benefits to doing so.  They can help with keeping track of how 'complete' the study is. If additional information is added to the spreadsheet, to identify which entry relates to who, then that will also be helpful to future researchers, and (hopefully) save them from purchasing incorrect certificates, which is an important consideration with 'popular' surnames, where there might be several, identically named, registrations, in the same district, in one quarter.  

I also think that the ease with which statistical tables, graphs, or distribution maps, can be produced from such spreadsheets, is another benefit.  Producing, and publishing, such "added value" is one of the aims of carrying out a surname study, which takes it beyond just the "family history" of everyone with the surname. 

The time together with the other members soon flew by - which might explain the title of this post.

Then again, it could be the only 'explanation' I have for not posting anything since 2020. 

Or maybe, as a result of struggling to carry out some "non-Parry" research into the owners of a local historic house during the Tudor period, I've just got latin on my mind! 





[* "I don't understand," according to Google Translate :-) ]

 




Monday, April 27, 2020

Missing an annual treat, new data, and surname distributions

This past weekend, I should have been away, at the annual conference of the Guild of One-Name Studies.  But, like so many other events, this has had to be postponed until next year, due to the current Coronavirus situation.  A "virtual AGM" was held - which I managed to miss (oops!)  Let's hope everyone keeps safe and well until next year, as it is always such fun (and educational, of course!) when we meet up for the weekend.

The current lovely weather has meant that my garden received more attention than my Study did over the past fortnight - apart from replying to a couple of queries, both of which involved the PARRY DNA Project, as well as genealogy, I haven't done any research at all!

But there's plenty to be done - these are the numbers of PARRYs in the databases that FindMyPast have added in the last two weeks:

FindMyPast Friday email dated 17 April 2020 
  • Surrey Burials - 133
  • Greater London Burial Index - 816
  • United States Billion Graves Index - 1756
  • Canada Billion Graves Cemetery Index - 123

FindMyPast Friday email dated 24 April 2020
  • Kent Baptisms - 374
  • Kent Marriages and Banns - 396
  • Kent Burials - 379

Those will keep me busy (when I get around to looking into them 🙂 )

A recent query on the Guild's mailing list about the old "publicprofiler" surname distribution site resulted in this link to a current website being posted - https://gbnames.mappingdutchman.com/

It's always interesting to look at the results for PARRY on sites like this.  I know what I would expect, based on the data, but the picture presented can vary.  One of the nice things about this new site is that, rather than the limited date ranges of the previous, this one now includes results for most of the census years, as well as more recent data.  There's also a slider so you can easily follow the pattern of change over time.

For 1851, the earliest date, the map shows concentrations of the surname PARRY from Anglesey, across all of North Wales and into Lancashire, another concentration around the Herefordshire/Monmouthshire border area, a third in London, and a final, less concentrated, area around about Birmingham.

By 2016, the North Wales concentration centres more around Liverpool, the Herefordshire/Breconshire concentration has moved south, centering more on the Monmouthshire and Glamorganshire border area, the London concentration has expanded and the Birmingham concentration has both expanded and become more dense.

In various intervening years, the North Wales and Birmingham/West Midlands concentrations join up and then split apart again.

There are several factors to consider with regard to comparing distributions like this, such as how the data has been organised (eg by counties, administrative areas, or postcode areas), whether it shows total numbers, numbers as proportions of the general population, or as percentages of the total in that surname etc. and I haven't yet read all the details about the methodology used on this site.

But it reminded me of the work I did years ago, in 2005, on plotting distributions of the PARRY surname.

This was one of the series I produced from the census data, showing the actual numbers of PARRYs in each of the English and Welsh counties:

The distributions of PARRYs in censuses, per county, based on actual numbers per year.

And this is one of the maps produced during my attempt to plot a modern distribution of the PARRY surname, based on electoral roll data for 2002:

Point distribution of the PARRY surname in 2002, based on Post Towns

All of which reminds me that I really must deal with getting my old web pages back online, as there is so much fascinating information in them!

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Beyond the Guild Blog Challenge

I am very grateful to Corinne for initiating the Guild Blog Challenge, and to Melody for setting up the associated Facebook Group, in order to encourage Guild members to start, or restart, blogging about their studies.  It was tough to get all my ten posts completed before the end of March, but I did manage it, thanks to a last minute dash at the end.

For many of us, the Challenge definitely served as a motivator and prompted us to stop putting off publishing information from our research.  And it is great that the Group will keep going, enabling anyone who hasn't yet completed the Challenge to do so, as well as encouraging us all to continue blogging.

The question for me, though, is exactly how to continue.

The Challenge reminded me of several 'conclusions' that I knew anyway, ie
1. That the Guild's main asset is the members, who are encouraging and supportive,
2. That words are not my forte - but that regular writing, and reviewing what I am going to post, does help to improve it. (well, I think it does - maybe any readers were just too polite to tell me what they really thought 🙂 )

The Challenge also highlighted some issues I need to improve on - for example, finding relevant photographs, or pictures, to illustrate a post.

Coming back to the study after a few years of very little planned research, the Challenge also helped to clarify what it is that I would like to achieve with the PARRY Study - which I have realised relates more to the 'bigger picture' about the data - frequencies, distributions, change rates etc - rather than the minutiae of individual family trees or stories.  Perhaps I shouldn't make such a confession but I don't (often) find other people's family history interesting.  I'm not a 'story' person.  Occasionally something might 'grab me' about a particular individual or family, but I have enough trouble keeping up with all the information on my own ancestors and their descendants, without trying to go into that much detail for all of the other PARRYs!   

There were definitely times over the last few months when I felt 'bogged down' by not getting something done on time - to the extent, at one point, I even considered deregistering the surname!  Examples of posts not completed include analysing the Norfolk records, which I'd extracted early on, also some records for Cumbria that had been mentioned as being on Family Search and which, like the Norfolk records, turned out to involve more than just a simple extraction task, because of the way the records are organised.

When I look back at my third post, "The state of the study. And some Norfolk records". and consider the extent to which the Study moved forward on those three 'big issues' over these months, I would have to answer, "it didn't."

Somewhere in there, is perhaps a hint about why some of us have problems with regular blogging, which is easiest to illustrate by comparing the difference between the impression given in WDYTYA! programmes and 'real research'.

Whenever the WDYTYA! series is on, with the celebrity walking into Registry Offices, or local Archives, and almost immediately coming out with the right piece of information to enable them to move on to the next stage of their journey, there is a chorus of comments from family historians that "real research isn't like that", that it takes time, and that sometimes hours of work produce very little reward (except the 'value' of negative searches, or course!  ðŸ™‚)

The programme is designed to make a good story - and I think that's what I found myself trying to achieve with my posts.  So I ended up doing research in order to write a post (and which therefore has a need to be 'finished'), rather than writing a post as a result of the research I'm doing anyway (where it doesn't matter if the research isn't finished - such a post is still a record of how the study is progressing.)

So, moving forward, there's likely to be a change in the type of posts I write, with more of the "weekly update" style.  I think that's better than reducing the frequency of posts. 

Fundamentally, the PARRY Study blog has to encourage progress on the PARRY study.  If I happen to occasionally produce an interesting story as a result of that, that will be great - but I'm going to try not to let that become my focus, as it reduces the chances of me publishing anything!



Saturday, March 28, 2020

Guild Blog Challenge Post 10: What's in a Name? Pluvius Cambria PARRY

Considering the topic of the previous few posts, perhaps I should subtitle this one, "and now for something completely different." 🙂

As one-namers, we are all used to the idea that names have meanings.  For surnames, that's usually related to the origin of the name - for example, there are surnames derived from occupations, from nicknames, from geographical or topographical features, and from a parent's name, as in patronymic or matronymic naming systems. PARRY is an example of a patronymic surname, since it comes from the Welsh use of 'ap', or 'son of', before a father's name of 'Harry'.

First names often have some form of meaning attached to them, as well.  There are meanings based on the origin of the word, eg for 'Harry', this is described as a Medieval English form of Henry, as well as being used in modern times as a shortened version of both Henry and Harold. Henry was itself derived from a German name, meaning 'home ruler'

But first names are also called 'given names' - a clue to another type of meaning, the meaning placed on it by the parents (or whoever named the child) in choosing that name and giving it to the child.

Sometimes names are chosen because the family are following a tradition:
First son was named after the father’s father.
Second son was named after the mother’s father.
Third son was named after the father.
The fourth son was named after the father's eldest brother
The first daughter after the mother's mother
The second daughter after the father's mother
The third daughter after the mother
The fourth daughter after the mother's eldest sister*
Other times, the name might have some personal relevance to the family - maybe a special relative, or someone who had assisted and supported them in some way, or someone they admired. It might mark an event of personal or national importance, or be a virtue the parents hope for the child (or experienced themselves).

Whatever the reason, 'given names' are chosen names - and, for some names, this just begs the question:
Why?
Why would parents inflict such a name on their child?!

I came up with my own scenario for the strangest name I have so far come across, in the PARRY One-name Study.  Imagine the scene, in a house in Wales, where new mother, Eliza, is talking to her husband, Powell, following their recent house move from England:

"It's raining"

"Yes dear, I know it's raining, but I need to go out to register the baby's birth"

"But, really, look at the weather!  It is *still* raining.  Does it never stop raining here?"

 "Well, it does,...er... sometimes.  But I still need to go out and register the baby's birth now.  What are we going to call him?"

"Rain in the morning, rain during the day, rain in the evening.  That's all I've seen since we arrived here.  RAIN! "

"Yes, dear.  I'm going out the door now - what shall we call him?"

"RAINY WALES!"

……
[a little while later, in an office in town]

"Yes, Registrar, I know it's a strange name.  But that's definitely what my wife said.  You think it might sound better in Latin?   Yes, I think you're right - please register his name as "Pluvius Cambria Parry"


……
[the End]

I may never discover the real reason why Powell and Eliza PARRY gave their son the names "Pluvius Cambria" but that story came to mind when I first discovered them in the censuses.  Powell came from Mold, Flintshire, but Eliza was from Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire.  Pluvius was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire so, when the family appear in Mold, Flintshire, in the 1841 census, I could just imagine the name as a new mother's response to being uprooted to live in a wet and soggy North Wales.

It was a nice story but I now know that it couldn't be true - since the birth of Pluvius was not actually registered, and he was also christened while they were still in Tewkesbury, on the 18 Dec 1839. 

In 1841, Powell (30), Eliza (20) and their one year old son, Pluvius, are in Mold, Flintshire, in the same household as a Cain PARRY, aged 25, and Ann PARRY, aged 60.  Cain and Ann, potentially, are Powell's brother and mother, although I haven't yet tried researching Powell's parentage.

Powell's occupation in 1841 is recorded as "Poor rate collector" - which seems a bit of a change from "Railway Contractor", which was his occupation when Pluvius was christened.

In 1851, the family are still living in Mold.  Powell (43) is now an "Auctioneer" and it is this census which tells us that Powell was born in Mold, while his wife, Eliza aged 34, was born in Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire.   As well as Pluvius, aged eleven, two further children have been born, Llewelyn Horne, aged seven, and Amanda Ann, aged five.

In 1855, Powell dies and, by the 1861 census, Eliza, Llwellyn and Amanda have moved to Eliza's birthplace, Berkhampstead, in Hertfordshire.  I did think I'd found Pluvius in all of the relevant censuses but, if I did, for some reason I didn't keep a record of where he was in 1861.  [So that's a 'mission', should anyone choose to accept it! ]

By 1871, Pluvius is living in Charles Street, St. Marylebone, London, working as a drapers assistant.

On the 4 Dec 1873, Pluvius married Anne Eliza OWEN at St George Hanover Square.  The details for this from the church records were obtained for me some years ago, as a result of one of the marriage challenges.  But, thanks to the newspaper collection on the National Library of Wales, I now know that the marriage was announced in the "Wrexham and Denbighshire Advertiser and Cheshire Shropshire and North Wales Register":
PARRY-OWEN - On the 4th inst., at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London, by the Rev. J. H. Murray, Pluvius C. Parry, formerly of Mold, to Anne Eliza, daughter of the late Mr William Owen, Tre'r Dryw Farm, Llanidan, Anglesea.
It appears that Pluvius might have ventured into a change of occupation - on the 14th January 1875,  Pluvius and his wife were in Llanwrwst, as the "North Wales Chronicle and Advertiser for the Principality" published the following on the 23rd January 1875:
LLANRWST. THE ROYAL HOTEL.—A supper took place at the Royal Hotel in this town, on Thursday, the 14th instant, on the occasion of Mr Pluvius Cambria Parry, from London, having taken the hotel, when a numerous and respectable party attended and enjoyed a capital spread. After the cloth was removed the usual loyal and patriotic toasts were proposed and drunk. The healths of the worthy proprietor and proprietress coupled with kind wishes for the future happiness and prosperity, the healths of the president and vice-president and other toasts were also drunk. Much credit is due to Mr and Mrs Parry for the way in which they catered for the enjoyment of their friends, who one and all expressed themselves much satisfied with the entertainment which had been provided for them. 
At first, knowing that Pluvius and Eliza are in Marylebone in 1881, I thought this report might just have meant that Pluvius and his wife were staying at the hotel, and put on a meal for their friends there.  However, they clearly did spend some time as the proprietors of the Royal Hotel, as another newspaper report, in "Llais Y Wlad" on the 2nd July 1875, has an account of a court case relating to charges of drunkenness and negligence against a Mr Roberts, which mentions Pluvius.

Llais Y Wlad is a Welsh language newspaper but, thanks to the wonders of modern technology in the form of Google Translate, we learn that it reads:
Pluvius Parry, proprietor of the Royal Hotel, Llanrwst, testified that Mr Roberts had been in the coffee-room at his hotel on the evening of the 6th of May. He remained in conversation with him for about an hour, and the witness, to whom he was essentially an individual, had not the slightest hesitation in saying that he was perfectly sober. Mr Roberts left between five and six o'clock, and both had a glass of beer each.  
I don't know how long Pluvius and Anne were at the Royal Hotel but, by the 1881 census, they are again living in St Marylebone - if I hadn't been searching for probate entries for his father, Powell, in the National Library of Wales, and then carried out a 'random search' for Pluvius amongst the newspaper records, I would not have even realised that the couple had spent time back in Wales.

They have no children with them in 1881, so it seems likely that they never had any (surviving) children.  They are living in 248 Great Portland Street, as are two other families and we know, from the electoral rolls, that they were renting a large unfurnished room on the second floor at 4 shillings a week.  Pluvius is working as a "clerk clothworkers". 

By 1883, they have moved to 43 Museum Street, Finsbury, and are renting one front room, on the second floor, at 6 shillings a week.  The Electoral Rolls on Ancestry.com for 1884, 1885, 1888, 1889, 1890, and 1891 continue to place them there.

Pluvius dies on the 2 Nov 1890 and the administration of his estate is granted to his wife, Anne Eliza, on the 17 Nov 1890.

Every time we visit Wales, and it rains, I think about poor Pluvius and wonder why his parents gave him that name.  From my newspaper searches, I was interested to find numerous references to "Jupiter Pluvius", in particular regarding events that were disrupted by rain.  This was derived from the Ancient Roman mythological concept of Jupiter as the god of the sky and thunder, and therefore as the bringer of rain.

So perhaps naming their child "Pluvius Cambria" really was a response to the idea of moving to Wales!



*
Relationship naming pattern - https://www.genealogy.com/articles/research/35_donna.html

Census Entries
1841: Class: HO107; Piece: 1410; Book: 12; Civil Parish: Mold; County: Flintshire; Enumeration District: 1; Folio: 12; Page: 15; Line: 5;
1851: Class: HO107; Piece: 2501; Folio: 566; Page: 20;
1861:
1871: Class: RG10; Piece: 148; Folio: 51; Page: 32;
1881: Class: RG11; Piece: 137; Folio: 89; Page: 24;

"Jupiter Pluvius" meaning - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jupiter_(mythology)

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Guild Blog Challenge Post 9: 1918, PARRYs in the CWGC

One of the things I wondered about, when I started to consider the PARRY deaths in 1918, was whether I should make any adjustments for deaths relating to the First World War.

This was because I remembered we have a death certificate for Thomas PARRY, my great grandfather's brother, who died out in South Africa, during the Boer War, and I suddenly realised that I wasn't sure of the answer to the question of how these deaths were recorded.  Do they appear in the online civil registration death indexes in some way, despite many of them taking place abroad?  If so, then what impact are they having on the 'normal' figures.

Having checked the copy of the certificate for Thomas, I see that it is actually headed up "Registration of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Special Provisions) Act 1957", as opposed to most of the normal copy certificates, which state "Pursuant to the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953".    Typed in one corner is "An entry in an Army Register Book of Deaths in the South African War 1899-1902" and other text states that it is a "true copy of the certified copy of an entry made in a Service Departments Register".

So there were separate registers for the war deaths.  However, it appears that those injured in the war and repatriated to the UK, who subsequently died, as well as the personnel from the Royal Navy, or merchant seaman, killed by enemy action and whose bodies were brought ashore, were registered by the local registrars.*

It would take too long to go through all the PARRY deaths I've previously extracted from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site, to try to identify which ones might also be included in the normal indexes and so relate the statistics to those in the Challenge Post 7.  But this does seem an opportunity to write something about the CWGC figures during the same time period.

My first extraction of the PARRY entries from the CWGC site was probably back about 2006, as part of normal data collection towards the one-name study.  But I'd repeated the process in 2013, when it had been my intention to do a project on them during the centenary period (28 July 2014 - 11 November 2018).  Unfortunately, I didn't manage that project, as the centenary began in the months following the death of a close relative and my time was spent dealing with other issues.

So this time I began by checking the current index back to my earlier extractions, as it is often useful to check for updates to such sites.  I didn't keep a record of how I searched last time, but I imagine I just used a straightforward search for the surname.  If so, then it seems there have been some changes to the search process and results found.   Previously, double barrelled surnames that began with PARRY were included, as was the surname "PARRYMAN".  This time, however, double barrelled surnames where PARRY is the second part were also included in the results, and the "PARRYMAN" entry was no longer included.  There were some changes to names - some mispellings were corrected and a couple of entries that were just initials now contain the casualty's full name.  There were also changes to some service numbers.

This graph shows the total numbers of PARRY deaths on the CWGC site for the period 1914 - 1921:


[Note: This is just PARRYs - I haven't included any of the double barrelled surnames etc, as the  previous Blog posts in this series only related to registrations for the one surname, PARRY, not any of the combination names]

Graphs can be used to show the data in a variety of ways, which can then lead into other types of investigations.  Here, for example, they are broken down by Service type:


As one might expect, in World War 1, the army bore the brunt of the casualties.  But viewing the figures like this might prompt the question of how many PARRYs were in each of the Services, and whether the casualty rates were proportional to that, or not.

The deaths could be displayed in terms of the country they served with, perhaps linking in to emigration of PARRYs and, again, the question of proportionality - were the death rates for the countries the same, and the higher figures for the UK PARRYs merely the product of the UK being the location for the origin of the surname:



With regard to where battles were, the deaths could be displayed in terms of the country the memorial is in:



It is possible to plot these memorial figures the other way round, ie places within each year.  But, since the numbers vary considerably, the story such a graph could tell would seem limited.

And, sometimes, only a table of data can bring home the more human cost of individual events:












*
War death registers and local registrations -
https://history.blog.gov.uk/2017/11/10/the-general-register-office-and-the-first-world-war/

Monday, March 23, 2020

Guild Blog Challenge Post 8: 1918, John Parry and his father, Thomas

Continuing on from my previous post, about the numbers of PARRYs who died in the period covering the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, this post relates to the impact of 1918 on my own ancestral line.  Two of my direct PARRY ancestors died that year, my great grandfather, John PARRY , and his father, Thomas.

John PARRY is featured in a post on my personal family history blog, which you can find here.  There will be more to add to his story, once I finish investigating the reasons for his nine months in prison, in 1911. He died on the 21st November 1918, of "morbus cordis" and syncope.  As someone explained the causes to my Dad (who began our family history research), "they just died!  It would be the most likely thing to put if someone died as a result of general weakness after 'flu".

John's father, Thomas PARRY, was 79 years old when he died in February 1918.  According to the death certificate, he died of cancer, asthenia and syncope so, potentially, the pandemic had no direct connection to his death.  It was just a matter of timing.

Thomas was born in 1838, in Llanwenarth, Monmouthshire.  He'd married in 1863, to Sarah JONES and they'd had four children before Sarah died in 1869, aged just 26, from meningitis.  Their youngest son, Lewis, born four days before Sarah passed away, then died from bronchitis at the age of 8 months. But the other three children survived to adulthood.

By 1891, Thomas was living in Walterstone, Herefordshire, at "Coed Gravel", a widower aged 53, working as a roadman.  With him were his daughter, Elizabeth, aged 24, and his mother, Hannah, aged 81.  It seems likely his mother died in the years soon after that census, although I haven't been able to identify her death yet.  But Thomas remarried in 1893 to Ann JONES, formerly MEREDITH, a 53 year old widow.  Thomas and Ann remained in Walterstone and, in 1901, were living at "Lower House".  Thomas was aged 62, and still working as a roadman for the Rural District Council.  By 1908, when Ann died, Thomas and Ann were living at "Quarries Green", Walterstone, and Thomas appears to still be living at the same property in 1911 (although, in the census, the property is described as "Quarrels Green").  He is now aged 72, and again it is recorded that he is working as a roadman for the RDC.

On the 9th December 1911, Thomas PARRY, of "Quarry's Green, Walterstone", wrote his Will.

He died on the 22nd February 1918, at Plum Tree Cottage, Graigamy, Clydach, Llanelly, Breconshire, which was the home of his step-daughter, Margaret Francis.

This is the relevant entry in the probate calendar:


The discovery of this record is something I always find amazing, whenever I think about it - one of those "chance finds" in genealogy, which help several pieces fall into place.   No other evidence has been found, so far, for this address of 18 Newmarket Street, Hereford, being connected to Thomas PARRY, so this is the find that I believe helped my Dad to confirm the link between my great grandfather, John, and my 2xgreat grandfather, Thomas.

Dad had begun to research our family history in the early 1980s, just after his father, Donald PARRY, died, so it was too late to ask any further questions. (How many of us have found ourselves in that situation!)

Donald had been orphaned in 1918, when his father, John, died, and there was very little information available about our PARRY line. When Dad started, many of the records and search facilities, which we almost take for granted these days, were not available - even the 1881 census was not yet indexed, and the civil registration indexes were only available in a limited number of places.

So, identifying entries relating to the correct father and grandfather for Donald had been a bit of a 'brickwall' for Dad.

I now have the numerous letters from the research company Dad used, showing what research had been carried out when, and giving their reasons why the investigations into John and his father's parentage hadn't progressed far since they had last written to Dad.  Over the years, bits and pieces of information had been collected, including, amazingly, details of the correct birth certificate for John.  But it is difficult to say now exactly what was "known" about the family at any particular time (without analysing all the research and putting it on a timeline) since details we now know to be correct are interspersed with various facts which turned out to be irrelevant (including incorrect birth details from other entries.)

Dad knew, from Donald's birth and marriage certificates, that his father was called John Parry and was a cattle dealer.  John's marriage certificate revealed that John was 37 when he married the 21 year old Rosina Louisa PREECE, in 1903, which made his birth about 1866.  The marriage certificate also indicated that John's father was called Thomas, a farmer.

Since Dad knew when his father, Donald, had been orphaned, it was possible to obtain John's death certificate.  This gave John's address as 18 Newmarket Street, Hereford.  An M.A Francis, "step-niece" was the informant, and her residence was the same address.

Although it seemed likely that the birth certificate identified by the research company in 1986 was going to be the correct one, as the father was recorded as Thomas PARRY, a farmer, the gap in information between that date and John's marriage hampered progress further back.

Despite the money spent on professional research, it was actually the 'chance find' by Dad, in 1993, that identified the correct Thomas. After years in the RAF and then being made redundant from an electronics company, Dad had found his 'dream job', working in a local Archives Office.  Unfortunately, the job didn't last more than about six months, due to ill health. But during that time, a researcher had come in and requested the National Probate Index.  Dad hadn't come across that then and so, once he was free, he decided to look up 1918 in the index, the year he knew John PARRY had died.

There was no entry in the index for John Parry, but, glancing down the page at the rest of the PARRYs, he suddenly spotted the address "18 Newmarkert Street" in the entry for a Thomas PARRY

Dad obtained a copy of the Will and death certificate and, finally, had sufficient information to enable him to be sure he was connecting John PARRY back to the right Thomas.

This is a transcript of the Will:
This is the last Will and Testament of me Thomas PARRY of Quarry's Green Walterstone in the County of Hereford made this ninth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and eleven. I hereby revoke all Wills made by me at any time heretofore. I appoint Alfred James Gilbert PHILLIPS, Trelandon, Walterstone and John PARRY, Carpenters Arms, Walterstone to be my Executors and direct that all my Debts and Funeral Expenses shall be paid as soon as conveniently may be after my decease - I give and bequeath unto my son John PARRY all my farming stock both live and dead also one Clock "Dresser bench" Three corner cupboard" one Iron bedstead" two Wooden Clothes boxes one silver watch and all my personal effects - The residue to be equally divided between my stepdaughters 
Margaret FRANCIS, the wife of Henry FRANCIS Clydach
Mary Ann WILLIAMS the wife of Arthur WILLIAMS, Bredwardine
Bidget LEWIS the wife of William LEWIS, Leominster
Elizabeth POWELL the wife of Henry POWELL Ebbw Vale
Emma PORTMAN the wife of James PORTMAN, Bridge Sollars -
It is my wish that my stepdaughter, Margaret FRANCIS for the kindness and attention shewn to me shall be recompensed at the discretion of my Executors -
Signed by the said Testator - The mark of x Thomas PARRY - in the presence of us present at the same time who at his request, in his presence, and in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as witnesses
Alfred James Gilbert PHILLIPS - Mary Sophia PHILLIPS
Affidavit of due execution and reading filed
On the 27th day of May 1918 Probate of this Will was granted at Hereford to Alfred James Gilbert PHILLIPS, one of the Executors 

Since neither the Will, nor Thomas's death certificate, show the Newmarket Street address that appears in the National Probate Index, my assumption is that it must have been the address that was entered for Thomas somewhere on the probate paperwork.

The Will at least answers the potential issue of John's birth and marriage certificates describing his father as a farmer, when this Thomas always seemed to be employed as a roadman.   The statement about his "farming stock both live and dead" indicates he must have been engaged in some, probably small scale, farming, whilst also employed as a road labourer.

But there are some intriguing features of the Will - the John PARRY of the Carpenter's Arms, one of the executors, is not my great grandfather, John.  Was there any blood relationship between the two PARRY families - not that I have found so far. 

It is interesting that there is more mention made of Thomas's step daughters than of his own children and grandchildren. His daughter Elizabeth had died in 1906, but she had, had two children who were aged 4 and 5 in 1911.  However, they were living in Buckinghamshire, so potentially had little contact with Thomas.

Thomas's first child, another Thomas, who had died in the Boer War, had three children.  These were aged 23, 16, and 12.  Although the oldest was in London in 1911, the mother and youngest child were still living in Herefordshire.

Finally, Thomas's son, John, also had two children, my grandfather, Donald, aged 7, and his sister, Rosina, aged 5, in 1911.

It is my assumption that Thomas PARRY didn't make his son the executor because, when he planned his Will, John was in Hereford Gaol (John was discharged the same day that the Will was signed, the 9th December 1911).  Perhaps Thomas even made his Will because John was in gaol, and he wanted to ensure his wishes were adequately known, should anything happen to him before his son was released?

We know that Thomas must have been in communication with his son, if he later moved from Walterstone to live in Newmarket Street with John, before going to stay with his step-daughter in Monmouthshire prior to his death in 1918.  Years later, John's daughter would also tell relatives that she could remember visiting her grandfather in Walterstone. I do get the impression that the family members looked out for each other - as well as the above, in 1901, John had his sister-in-law and her children living with him, while his brother was away at war. From John's death certificate, his step-niece had been living with him at the time of his death, possibly helping to keep house and look after the children. And I have been told that, after John's death, it was relatives who took in John's two children, although they were separated.

What an impact the year of 1918 must have had on my grandfather, Donald - to have lost his grandfather, then his father, and then to be separated from his sister, as he was sent to live with relatives outside of Hereford.

In September 1923, aged 19, Donald PARRY obtained the administration of his father's estate:


And, on the 5th April 1924, Donald set sail for Canada, with a view to emigrating there permanently.

Fortunately, for me, sometime before February 1927, he returned to the UK - otherwise I wouldn't be here. 🙂


References:
1891 census: Class: RG12; Piece: 2066; Folio: 19; Page: 4;
1901 census: Class: RG13; Piece: 2485; Folio: 19; Page: 1
1911 census: Class: RG14; Piece: 15738; Schedule Number: 28

National Probate Index - https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills