The Parry DNA Project

Back in May, I briefly wrote about attending the Guild DNA seminar and about how there probably needs to be a lot more "paper research" before DNA can be used effectively with regard to the Parrys. But following recent discussions on the forum, I decided it was time to act. So, despite the fact that the paper research still needs doing and that I haven’t even caught up with all my emails, I have taken the opportunity to set up a Parry DNA project. Well, actually, Susan from the Guild made all the arrangements, so it is a big thanks to her for doing that. But I am the administrator for the project so now it’s down to me. I still need to update the project profile page, so that it describes the project in more detail. I’ll also need to update my own Parry web pages and the Parry profile at the Guild, as well as let people know about it via the mailing lists etc. But at least the actual testing system is up and running. Information can be found at http://www.familytreedna.com/public/Parry/.

Thinking of the mailing lists, in my last entry I wrote about the lack of activity there – October has now had more messages posted to the list than any month ever, and more than the last five months added together! It is encouraging to see people helping each other. Unfortunately for me, the majority of the postings have been message board postings, and the topic has wandered from its original subject, which means I shall have to work out how to tidy up the threads – something I haven’t particularly had to do before. (But I’m not complaining!)

Some other new information arrived today, in the form of two marriage certificates from the Poplar marriage challenge. One of them, Annie Eliza Parry who married William Edward Orchard in 1866, I have been able to identify in the earlier censuses. These challenge results always provide an opportunity to search for specific people in a way that I probably don’t do when just collecting census information. It often results in me being able to match people up across the censuses. Unfortunately the other marriage result, William Parry who married Emma Croxton in 1869, is a bit more elusive. Interestingly, his father was a James Wellington Parry, who I don’t think I have come across before (a middle name like that would tend to stick in my mind). There are a couple of Parrys with Wellington as a middle name nearer to 1900, but I can’t see any obvious connection at the moment.

Talking of marriage challenges, I did finally get the Bromsgrove entries submitted, as well as a few relating to challenges with only a small number of Parry entries, although I still have another large area, Marylebone, to check through. Sometimes jobs take longer than expected – but other times I just get sidetracked. A few days ago, I considered posting an entry entitled "Good intentions". It was going to describe how I had started the day full of plans to catch up with various emails and get several sets of challenge submissions organised but how I had soon found myself doing other things. This was because, when I started to answer an email from a new contact in Australia, it reminded me that I had not extracted all the Parry entries from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

2251 entries later… (and no emails, challenge submissions or blog entry achieved)

And, as people start their Christmas countdowns, I realise I have less than three months to achieve last year’s resolution!