We all make mistakes when researching. Sometimes they are fairly simple ones, easily done, for example, typing a 6 instead of 9 in a year, or forgetting to add an "m." before a date, to signify it's the person's marriage, rather than their birth year (both of which I have recently done. Hopefully discovered - and corrected - before the information is published in a rather permanent form.)
Such simple mistakes mainly cause difficulty in finding the relevant records again in the future (and, perhaps, some embarrassment at the time of discovery! :-) )
But more serious mistakes can result in us spending years researching the wrong family. In this post I'm going to consider some of the evidence relating to the origins of a "George Franklin PARRY", who is said to have died in Texas in 1878. Although I imagine issues have arisen because of the difficulties faced when tracing an immigrant ancestor back to their home country, the tendency for people to just copy other people's family trees can soon result in the spread of misinformation.
How can we counteract this?
My attention was first drawn to this family back in March 2018, when one of my autosomal DNA matches in America told me that his paternal grandfather was a George Frank PARRY - obviously someone of interest to me, given the surname. I began researching George through the various online sites, such as Family Search, Ancestry, FindMyPast, etc. What seems to be established is that this George Frank PARRY, also known as George Franklin PARRY, was born on the 5th November 1874, in Madison, Illinois, and his parents were recorded as another George F PARRY and Emma WALTERS (that information, at least, comes a Social Security file on Family Search1, rather than just family trees, but it is from the son's record. I have yet to find any original records relating to his father in the US.) The family moved from Illinois to Texas, where the father died in 1878, and the mother later remarried. George junior married in 1897, and had five children, four daughters - Viola, Ida Ruba, Hazel Ellis, and Willie Mae, and one son, who always seems to be referred to as "B.L."
It's the earlier generation, of George F PARRY senior, that I'm concerned with here, since it would be him and his wife, Emma, who emigrated, and who therefore need identifying properly in the UK records, in order to trace the family further back.
Just to note initially, that I have looked at the "parent's birthplace" recorded in the US censuses in entries linked to George junior on Family Search, which show George senior as born in England in 1910 and 1920, and then, according to the 1930 census, in the United States. But I'm not placing a great deal of weight on that information - given that George senior had died in 1878, when George junior was only aged four, it would be very easy for a mistake to be made regarding the deceased father's birthplace. [There are also some anomalies in the linked records, eg in the entry for 1910, the surname is recorded as PEARY, and in the entry for 1930, George and his wife's forenames/initials are reversed. I haven't carried out additonal searching to confirm these are the correct entries.] Another possible entry, in the 1880 census, which has the surname as "PERRY", would also indicate that George senior was born in England.
So it was interesting to note that the majority of the family trees on Ancestry that show a birthplace for George senior, placed it in Wales, rather than in England.
I did a quick assessment regarding the information shown in the various Ancestry trees - which is a bit of a 'nightmare' to summarise, as many researchers can probably imagine!
Basically, as at September 2024, there are over fifty family trees visible on Ancestry showing George Franklin PARRY junior. Only twenty of them show his parents. Of those, fifteen show his father as George Franklin PARRY and five show him as just George F PARRY. Dates for George senior are shown in several versions - as just the death date of 1878 in five trees, as 1843-1878 in one tree, and as 1849-1878 in thirteen others. George junior's mother, Emma, is shown with her surname as WALTERS in twelve trees (one of them also including an additional middle name of "Lovisa"), as WATERS in seven trees, and as PARRY in one.
As mentioned above, I haven't seen any references to original records in the US relating specifically to George senior so, apart from the Social Security document for his son, there seems to be no contemporary evidence for George senior having used the middle name of "Frank," or "Franklin," despite what twenty family trees say.
Seven of the twenty family trees also show parents for George senior, two just showing a father called Thomas PARRY, four showing both parents as Thomas PARRY (1811- ) and Martha MORRIS (1812-1900), and the last one showing both Thomas and Martha as PARRY, along with just their birth dates.
The UK 'facts' attached to "George Franklin PARRY" (senior) in the various trees are as follows:
Birth:
April 1849 Abergavenny, Monmouthshire (12 trees) or just "Monmouthshire" (5 trees)
[Only one tree is linked to the "England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index 1837-1915", the others have no source.]
1851 Residence:
New Moat, Pembrokeshire, Wales [1851 Wales Census. Class: HO107; Piece: 2475; Folio: 169; Page: 11; ]
1861 Residences:
New Moat, Pembrokeshire, Wales [1861 Wales Census. Class: RG9; Piece: 4147; Folio: 27; Page: 2;]
Or
Blaenavon, Monmouthshire, Wales [1861 Wales Census. Class: RG9; Piece: 4147; Folio: 27; Page: 2;]
Marriage of George PARRY to Emma WALTERS/WATERS:
1868 (no place given)
1868 Monmouthshire, Wales
18 December 1868
6 May 1869 Llanelen, UK
18 December 1869 Llanellen, Monmouthshire, Wales
July 1870, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
Or just "Bef. 1870"
The "July 1870" entry is linked to the "England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915" but, since the four names shown in the database for that reference are Martial Espian, Mary James, Ellen Jones, and George Parry, this clearly isn't the right entry for the marriage of George PARRY to Emma WALTERS.
Amusingly, the "1868 Monmouthshire" entry is the only one of the 'facts' that is linked to the "Monmouthshire, Wales, Anglican Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1551-1994" database, showing the certificate for a marriage between a George PARRY and an Emma WALTERS, which took place in Llanellen on 6 May 1869! [This particular tree also includes a fact for Marriage Banns, with a date of 18 December 1969, Llanellen, Monmouthshire, Wales - no source. But one wonders why that specific date of "18th December" appears in some trees, even if the year varies?]
If the George PARRY who emigrated was married to the Emma WALTERS - which later records in the US for Emma and their children do seem to indicate is true - this marriage is probably the correct one, since there are no other marriages in the Civil Registration database for a George PARRY to either an Emma WALTERS, or to an Emma WATERS.
From the details of the marriage certificate, the father of the George PARRY who married Emma WALTERS was a Thomas PARRY. George and his father, Thomas, were both labourers. George and Emma are both shown as "of full age", and both are living in Llanellen, Monmouthshire. [Note - there's no middle name recorded for George PARRY on the marriage certificate - an official record, which one might expect to include the middle name, if it existed.]
Following up the census entries quoted in the family trees:
1851 New Moat, Pembrokeshire HO107; Piece: 2475; Folio: 169; Pages 10 & 11
Enumerator's schedule: 40, Address: Pont Garreg
Thomas Parry Head 41 Ag. Lab. Llanddewi, Pembrokeshire
Martha Parry Wife 38 Llancefn, Pembrokeshire
Sarah Parry Daur 13 Ag. Lab's Daur New Moat, Pembrokeshire
John Parry Son 10 Ag. Lab's Son New Moat, Pembrokeshire
Hanah Parry Daur 4 Ag. Lab's Daur New Moat, Pembrokeshire
George Parry Son 1 Ag. Lab's Son New Moat, Pembrokeshire
1861 New Moat, Pembrokeshire Class: RG9; Piece: 4147; Folio: 27; Page: 2, and Folio 28, Page 3;
Enumerator's schedule: 10, Address: Pontcarreg
Thomas Parry Head Mar 50 Ag. Lab. Lampeter
Martha Parry Wife Mar 49 Llanycefen
George Parry Son 11 Scholar New Moat
Sarah Llewellin Daur Mar 22 Ag Lab wife New Moat
Owen Parry Grandson 6/12 New Moat
Eleanor Parry Granddaur 6/12 New Moat
[The county for all of these birth entries has been 'dittoed' down from Carmarthen. However, Lampeter would have been in Cardiganshire, the rest are in Pembrokeshire.]
One can immediately (hopefully!) see a problem with these census entries, in that the birthplace for the son, George, is New Moat, Pembrokeshire, and not Abergavenny, Monmouthshire. So, if these are the correct census entries, then the "Abergavenny" as the birthplace in the trees must be incorrect.
A search of the GRO Birth Index for any George PARRYs registered in 1849 +/-2 produces 40 records, only eight of which are in Wales - three in Wrexham, Denbighshire, and one each in Abergavenny Monmouthshire, Narberth Pembrokeshire, Bangor Anglesey, Crickhowell Breconshire, and Chepstow Monmouthshire.
Since New Moat is in the Registration District of Narberth, Pembrokeshire, and the mother's maiden name for the Narberth entry in the civil registration index is MORRIS, that explains where the 'MORRIS' has come from, as the maiden name for George's mother in some of the family trees. Clearly the Narberth birth registration would be more likely to be the correct one for the family in the census.
But is it the right family for George senior? Is the George PARRY from New Moat the one who marries Emma in Llanellen (in Monmouthshire) and then emigrates?
Returning to the censuses and looking for George in 1871, it is possible to find the following entry in New Moat, Pembrokeshire, at Class: RG10; Piece: 5506; Folio: 59; Page: 10;
Enumerator's schedule: 51, Address: Pontcarreg
Martha Parry Head Wid 63 Formerly labourer's wife Llandcefn, Pembrokeshire
George Parry Son Unmar 21 Carpenter New Moat, Pembrokeshire
Eleanor Parry Granddaur 11 Scholar New Moat, Pembrokeshire
So, at a time when the relevant George PARRY is married and potentially emigrating to the US, this George is unmarried and still living at home, with his mother and a niece, in Pembrokeshire.
Later records also confirm that the George PARRY, born 1849 in New Moat, continues to live there, marries a Mary DAVIES on the 9th June 1874, and then they go on to have about ten children, before he dies in 1917.
Clearly, the Narberth George PARRY is not the correct one, and any of the family trees containing that information could mislead other researchers. While the census entries for the New Moat family might be one of the very few showing a George PARRY, of a suitable age, and with a father called Thomas, one can't assume a particular entry is the correct one, just because it's the only one found. There are many reasons why a child might not appear with their father in a census.
One family tree quoted a different 1861 census entry, in Blaenavon, Monmouthshire, Wales [1861 Wales Census. Class: RG9; Piece: 4147; Folio: 27; Page: 2;]
Enumerator's schedule: 214, Address: John Street
Anne Parry Head Mar 63 Ho(r/u?)sekeeper Llangredmore, Pembrokeshire
George Parry Son Un 27 Coal miner Blaenavon, Monmouthshire
Apart from the fact that this entry would give a birth date of 1834, fifteen years earlier than that suggested for the George who emigrates, later census entries for this George can also be found in the Blaenavon area up until his probable death in 1909.
Where does this leave us? Basically, with the only relevant UK record being the marriage in Llanellen on 6 May 1869.
So, are there any other George PARRYs in the UK records who might be candidates for marrying Emma WALTERS?
To be honest, unfortunately, yes - there are over a hundred births for a "George PARRY" registered across England and Wales in the period from 1841-1851. Narrowing that area down to birth registrations in the county of Monmouthshire produces eleven possibilities. Narrowing that down further, to just the Abergavenny registration district (which covers Llanellen), still results in seven entries as follows:
Name: Mother's Maiden Surname:
PARRY, GEORGE - GRO Reference: 1841 D Quarter in ABERGAVENNY Volume 26 Page 23
PARRY, GEORGE HUGHES GRO Reference: 1843 M Quarter in ABERGAVENNY Volume 26 Page 22
PARRY, GEORGE WATKINS GRO Reference: 1843 J Quarter in ABERGAVENNY Volume 26 Page 25
PARRY, GEORGE BOWEN GRO Reference: 1843 S Quarter in ABERGAVENNY Volume 26 Page 58
PARRY, GEORGE FISHER GRO Reference: 1844 J Quarter in ABERGAVENNY Volume 26 Page 53
PARRY, GEORGE HUGHES GRO Reference: 1845 M Quarter in ABERGAVENNY Volume 26 Page 5
PARRY, GEORGE PERKS GRO Reference: 1849 J Quarter in ABERGAVENNY Volume 26 Page 70
Eventually I hope to be able to match up all of the corresponding civil registration births, marriages and deaths, for PARRYs in certain counties, along with their relevant census entries as well, but I haven't achieved that yet.
[And, if I didn't have other evidence, then only researching these seven would involve making the risky assumption that the 'right' George PARRY was someone local, and not someone who moved into the area, before marrying Emma.]
I do know that some of these entries can be discounted - for example, there is a marriage of a William PARRY to a Sarah PERKS in 1838, in Crickhowell District (which covers part of Monmouthshire), and an 1851 census entry shows William and Sarah with a one year old son, George, as well as other children whose birth registrations showed a mother's maiden name of PERKS. So that discounts the George Parry registered in 1849, since his father's name is not Thomas.
There are also some, potentially relevant, deaths of George PARRYs in the Abergavenny district - infants in 1842 and 1843, a 5 year old in 1849, and an 11 year old in 1855. Purchase of all the certificates would possibly clarify who is still alive at the time of the marriage - but the cost, even of just the cheaper pdf certificate versions, would soon become prohibitive, if one wasn't making assumptions to reduce the number of results.
Doing a search on FindMyPast for a George PARRY with a father Thomas, across all the record types in the Abergavenny district, within that 1846 +/-5 birth date range, might seem a useful method to narrow the entries down, especially since it results in only two entries, the marriage in Llanellen and a baptism of a George in Llanwenarth Ultra in 1843, the son of a Thomas and Hannah PARRY. Unfortunately, I suspect that particular baptism isn't the correct one, since an infant George PARRY is buried in Llanwenarth less than a week after the baptism, and I know that the son of Thomas and Hannah that was born in 1843 dies soon after birth (although there is an anomaly with dates, since the baptism date is the day before his birth certificate indicates he was born! Such are the joys of genealogical records!)
Identifying the correct George PARRY from the available information would seem to be an almost impossible task - and it would certainly help if there were more records available regarding his emigration with Emma, or in the US, when his children were born, or when he died.
But there was a clue as to a potential solution, at the start of this post, when I mentioned my autosomal DNA results.
Because it just so happens that I have a 'missing' George PARRY, a sibling to my direct line. He's the George PARRY whose birth was registered in the March quarter of 1845, with the mother's maiden name of HUGHES.
Thomas PARRY and Hannah HUGHES, who married in May 1838, had a tendency to "border hop" around the Herefordshire, Breconshire and Monmouthshire area, probably in response to whatever work Thomas could find. They were married in Llanelly, Breconshire, when they were recorded as living in "Twinclydach".
Six children followed:
Thomas, born in Llanwenarth Citra, Monmouthshire, in 1838
John born in Lloyndu, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, in 1840
George, born in Llancavan, Llanwenarth Ultra, Monmouthshire, in 1843 (died at 23 hours)
The second George, born in Frogmore Ward, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, in 1845
James, born in Upper Govilon, Llanwenarth Ultra, Monmouthshire, in 1848
And finally. Elizabeth, born in Longtown, Herefordshire, in 1851 (the family having been "removed" from Llanwenarth to Longtown.)
In the 1851 census, most of the family were in Longtown, Herefordshire
Class: HO107; Piece: 1978; Folio: 646; Page: 22;
Thos Parry Head Mar 45 Poper Longtown, Herefordshire
Hannah Parry Wife Mar 42 Llandilo, Monmouthshire
John Parry Son 10 Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
George Parry Son 6 Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
James Parry Son 2 Llanwenarth, Monmouthshire
Elizabeth Parry Daughter 9 Days Longtown, Herefordshire
In the 1861 census, George is possibly the 15 year old servant living in Llanthewy Rytherch, a carter with his birthplace as "Govilon, Brecon" [Class: RG9; Piece: 3991; Folio: 44; Page: 7;] (Govilon is actually in Monmouthshire, a hamlet of Llanwenarth Ultra) His mother, and brother James, are still in Longtown [Class: Rg 9; Piece: 1824; Folio: 59; Page: 13;] his father, and siblings, John & Elizabeth, all having died by then.
In 1871 George's mother, recorded as "Anna" rather than "Hannah," is living in Llanellen, along with George's brothers, Thomas and James, and Thomas's four children:
Class: RG10; Piece: 5311; Folio: 28; Page: 9
Enumerator's schedule: 41 Address: No.1 Bryn-y-Betts
Anna Parry Head Wid Female 65 1806 Ag labs wid Clydach, Herefordshire, England
Thomas Parry Son Widr Male 30 1841 Ag lab Clydach, Herefordshire, England
James Parry Son Unmar Male 23 1848 Forge lab Clydach, Herefordshire, England
Tom Parry Grandchild - Male 7 1864 - Capel Y Fiele, Breconshire, Wales
John Parry Grandchild - Male 5 1866 - Capel Y Fiele, Breconshire, Wales
Elizabeth Parry Grandchild - Female 4 1867 - Cwm Llanelen, Monmouthshire, Wales
There's only one other Parry family living in Llanellen in 1871, headed by a father called William, so that family wouldn't fit the marriage detail.
According to the above 1871 census entry, Anna, Thomas, and James, were all born in Herefordshire, but I know from earlier records that, that was not the case - they were all born in Wales, in various places in Monmouthshire. So this 'border hopping' across the Wales/England divide, without strong connections to Wales (as far as I am aware, none of them spoke Welsh) could easily explain why George Franklin PARRY gave his father's birthplace as England, rather than Wales.
As can also be seen from the above 1871 census entry, Elizabeth, Anna's grandchild (and daughter of the Thomas) was born in Upper Cwm, Llanellen, in April 1867. Although Thomas and his family did move to Pwlldu for a time after that (in 1869/70, based on certificates for the birth and death of another child, as well as the death of Thomas's wife), it is possible Hannah/Anna continued to live in Llanellen during that period. I will admit to not having spent a great deal of time looking for "my" George elsewhere, so it is possible he remained somewhere in the UK. But the fact that members of the family were in the Llanellen area at the time the George PARRY married Emma WALTERS does seem to make "my" George a fairly good candidate to be the one marrying Emma and then emigrating.
What do you think?
In addition to the first autosomal DNA match, who brought the George Franklyn PARRY junior to my attention, I now have another autosomal DNA match who descends from a different child of the George Franklyn PARRY junior. I also have an autosomal match with a descendant of James, the other brother of George and Thomas PARRY. And that descendant of James also matches the descendant of George.
Of course, one thing that would really add to the evidence that "my" George is the correct one, would be if a direct male line descendant of the George Franklin PARRY was to take a Y-DNA test. Since an uncle of mine has already taken that test, a match from such a descendant of George Franklin PARRY would help to confirm that the connection is through the direct male line.
Unfortunately, based on the Ancestry pedigrees, time for that might be running out, as their line looks to be as in danger of "daughtering out" as my branch now has.
Some final thoughts
While I have been commenting on the mistakes in these family trees on Ancestry, this post isn't meant, in any way, as a criticism of the individual researchers, or as yet another opportunity to have a moan about "Ancestry trees". Instead, I've tried to indicate how such mistakes can come about, and perhaps offer some suggestions towards counteracting them. The lack of available records about George PARRY senior in the US is a problem, because it means the details that do exist have often come through later generations. The discrepancies in records, such as the variations in birthplaces across census entries for the same person, can complicate research, as can the sheer numbers of possibilities when dealing with a 'frequently occurring' surname. But such problems can be overcome, by carefully following up additional possibilities and trying to 'disprove' one's own theories, by not assuming the only entry found must be the correct one, and by educating oneself about the geography and records for areas that aren't familiar.
Oh, and putting the alternatives "out there" in the world, in the hope that a well-researched correction of a mistake might eventually gain more support than the original mistake.
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| The relationship of some of the places mentioned in the blog to Llanellen |
References:
1. "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K7L-FMTJ : 10 February 2023), George Franklin Parry, Jr, .
Possible US Census entries
"United States Census, 1880", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MFNZ-8WJ : Thu Mar 07 21:08:35 UTC 2024), Entry for John F Dugger and Joseph A Pope, 1880.
"United States Census, 1910", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M23R-4JQ : Fri Mar 08 11:05:41 UTC 2024), Entry for George F Peary and Mary S Peary, 1910.
"United States Census, 1920", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK17-9NML : Fri Jul 12 07:50:39 UTC 2024), Entry for George F Parry and Mary S Parry, 1920.
"United States Census, 1930", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HKM8-9N2 : Fri Mar 08 03:30:01 UTC 2024), Entry for Frank G Parry and Susie Parry, 1930.
