It is the last day of the month (again!) and, since I doubt that I shall finish the post I was working on for July, I've decided to just write a short piece, prompted by the "Wiki Genealogy Feed" email that I received this morning.
Wikitree is a collaborative site, which enables people to work together to build a "global family tree".1 Almost every day, there's an email which updates me about new genealogists who have added the tags I follow, new activity on the "Genealogist-to-Genealogist forum", and also about changes to the profiles of people with the surnames I am interested in.
This morning's message included an improvement to the biography of John Orlando Parry (1810-1879)2 through the additon of information from the Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain. It seems the Society have very kindly permitted access to some of their historical documents, supporting the information being made available on Wikitree. You can find the "List of Members and Non-Members of The Royal Society of Musicians of Great Britain", which contains links to each of the relevant profiles, at https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Royal_Society_of_Musicians .
There are actually two PARRYs on the list, John Orlando PARRY, and his father, another John PARRY.
I should be able to add more information, at least to John Orlando, since I carried out some research on him years ago, when I purchased a copy of his "Manual of Musical Terms" as a potential present for a 'trainee musician'.
It is interesting that most of the census entries relating to John Orlando PARRY show him as a "professor of music" - which sounds very academic. And yet he is described variously as an "actor and entertainer"4, an "actor, pianist, artist, comedian, songwriter and singer"5 "a pianist, harpist, singer and actor, a composer of songs and a watercolour artist", who was "well known for his musical entertainments which involved comic songs, monologues and impersonations."6, as well as a "comic artist".7
[I did try researching this 'discrepancy' further, in case there had been confusion between entries relating to different people with the same name, especially after finding a John PARRY, of a similar age, whose occupation in the 1841, and 1851, censuses was "comedian". However, that John's wife was a "Martha", and John Orlando PARRY had married an Anne Combe in 1835, which matches to the wife's name in the "professor" census entries. The "Musical Terms" book contains an address for John, of "4 Colville Gardens". I couldn't find the address in the 1841-1861 censuses, and it was uninhabited in the 1871 census. But the "Post Office London Directory" for 1865, on Ancestry, does indicate that 4 Colville Gardens was occupied by a "Parry John, esq" at that time. Given that John Orlando Parry often seems to appear as just John Parry, that he was described as "John Parry", "Gentleman" when his daughter first married in 1857, but as "John Orlando Parry" "esquire" at her second marriage, in 1872 - and he was probably the witness who signed as just "John Parry" on both of those occasions, I think I have to assume the 'professor' census entries are correct. One possible explanation for the occupation derives from the fact that his father, John Parry, was given the Bardic name '"Bardd Alaw" (professor of music and master of song)' in 18218 so perhaps John Orlando, demonstrating a touch of his comic character, appropriated a similar title!]
Anyway, that was a sidetrack [so much for the 'short' post. ☺]
What really struck me this morning was the reminder of how useful Wikitree seems to be for projects, like the Royal Society of Musicians documents, because of the way individual profiles can be gathered together through a category, while remaining 'open' for other people to edit and contribute to.
Some years ago, I set up a Parry Name Study on Wikitree, although I will admit to not having been very active with it, for various reasons. However, I have recently been looking at the site with a view to using it for a potential One-Place Study and I think now, with so many more examples of such studies available, I might be more capable of understanding how to do some things!
So I just wanted to encourage anyone who hasn't looked at Wikitree, to take a look.
Who knows, you might find some of your ancestors already have profiles on there!
Notes and Sources
1. Wikitree: https://www.wikitree.com/
2. The profile for John orlando PARRY on Wikitree: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Parry-3734
3. Google Books version of John Parry's "Manual of Musical Terms": https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=evQGAAAAQAAJ&rdid=book-evQGAAAAQAAJ&rdot=1
Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 15 accessed through Ancestry (at https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/1981/images/31205_Vol15-00397?usePUB=true&usePUBJs=true&pId=42146 but possibly requires a subscription)
V&A Collections https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1433400/john-orlando-parry-print-unknown/
8. Wikitree entry for John PARRY, Bardd Alaw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Parry_(harpist,_born_1776)
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