Blanche Parry and Queen Elizabeth I

I don't normal specifically advertise Parry related products, but I hope you'll forgive me for this one, since it is in aid of a good cause.

Ruth Richardson, who wrote the book "Mistress Blanche: Queen Elizabeth I’s Confidante" has been involved in the production of a limited edition, souvenir calendar, the proceeds of which are all to go to Bacton Church, in Herefordshire.  She writes,

  These lovely pictures+detailed descriptions (making a short book) are in a calendar-format to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, 2012. Through the generosity of the Queen (who waived charges) it includes the gorgeous portrait of Princess Elizabeth, c.1546, in her red and gold dress. The Marquess of Salisbury has generously allowed the Rainbow portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, the portrait of Lord Burghley (Blanche's cousin) and a photograph of Hatfield Old Palace to be used without charges. The other pictures show: Blanche Parry's St. Margaret's Church (Westminster) tomb, Blanche's Bacton monument, Queen Elizabeth I's Presence Chamber, the frontispiece of the 1588 Welsh Bible, Llangorse Lake + 1584 map, the site of Newcourt + drawing of the house, Bacton Church and Dore Abbey. We are most grateful to all the picture owners. Details can be seen on www.blancheparry.com

All proceeds from this calendar will benefit Bacton Church where Blanche worshipped as a girl and where her family are buried. Apart from printing, all work on this project has been voluntary. It is a strictly limited edition, with superb pictures, and cannot be repeated. This calendar really is recommended to keep as a collectable. Recently described as 'magnificent', 'gorgeous' and 'unique', it has already sold throughout the UK and Europe, and from Alaska to Australia.... 

Further copies can be obtained from amazon.uk or directly from Ruth E. Richardson. Thank you.

So, if you're still in need of a calendar for 2012, or just want to gain a collectable, please see Ruth’s website, at http://www.blancheparry.com/calendar_release.shtml , for more information.

Focussing

I saw on the news recently that an avalanche in the Swiss ski resort of Zermatt has left many British holidaymakers stranded. This reminded me of some correspondence last year regarding Edward Parry, Suffragan Bishop of Dover, whose tombstone is shown on my page at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/im.griffiths/parryfamilyhistory/parrytrnscrptns/fess.htm#can .  It turned out that, in 1871, Edward travelled to Switzerland in order to consecrate several Anglican Churches, one of which was The English Church (St Peter’s) in Zermatt.  The Times Online for Aug 05, 1871 reported that "The Right Rev. Edward Parry, D.D. Suffragan Bishop of Dover, will consecrate the Zermatt Church on Sunday next."  Diane, my correspondent, very kindly arranged for a copy of the Church’s history, “A Church in the Alps”, which contains some details of Bishop Parry’s involvement in the dedication of the Church, to be sent to me.

It is interesting how, even with a large study, one family can come to dominate so many of the references collected.  I happened to be considering writing a blog posting about a sequence of Parrys – Joshua Parry, Caleb Hillier Parry and Charles Henry Parry, three generations from one family, when I heard the news item.  The post was prompted because of my purchase of a book entitled "The Spirit of Enquiry, Caleb Hillier Parry, MD, FRS" by Sholem Glaser, just before Christmas.  This is one of several books I’ve come across in the past and thought “I really must get a copy”. Written by a retired surgeon, the book covers Caleb’s contributions to medicine but it also contains information about his ancestry and family relationships, so my hope is that it will both confirm the information I already have, and also give me some new leads on the family.   

Charles Henry’s brother, and the youngest son of Caleb Hillier Parry, was Sir William Edward Parry, the arctic explorer - and his son was the Edward, Suffragan Bishop of Dover, subject of the Swiss churches query.  Later descendants of the family include another Bishop, another Admiral and a couple of knights – so that’s why this one family seems to dominate the record collection. 

And since this family made use of the same coat of arms as the Herefordshire “Golden Valley” family, it is one that I am particularly interested in putting together the pedigree for.  I usually try to avoid collecting too much general biographical information on individuals – anyone interested in that much detail on these individuals can easily find it elsewhere anyway (although there are some errors – as on the Wiki page for the Suffragan Bishop, which has his father incorrectly listed as his grandfather).  But another book relating to this family, “A Memoir of the Rev. Joshua Parry, Nonconformist Minister of Cirencester; With Some Original Essays and Correspondence”, has also been on my “wants” list for a while.  This is the biography of Joshua written by his grandson, Charles Henry and published in 1872 so, again, it’s a book likely to contain information about family connections.   I discovered that it has joined the many old books being digitised and republished – unfortunately, only as a “snippet view” online, but at least printed versions are now easily available so that’s where some of my “Christmas money” will be going! 

I wrote in my last post about identifying the probable author of the pedigree sheets in Hereford library.  As I was looking up the book about Joshua a few days ago, I noticed that the front cover for the original version shown on the Google books page (at http://books.google.co.uk/books?q=editions:ISBN0217432417&id=LwzYQQAACAAJ&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES ) is the drawing of the coat of arms from the tomb of Joan Parry, formerly Morgan, the wife of James Parry of Poston, which I show on my “quartered coats of arms” page at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/im.griffiths/parryfamilyhistory/parrytrnscrptns/gvarms.htm  .  I obtained this drawing at the same time as the pedigree sheets so, since I don’t think Charles Henry was the author of them, it appears he was probably in touch with the author (or my identification is wrong!)  It will be an interesting task to try to identify who was communicating with who, out of the various, separate, Parry families, during the 1800s.

I haven’t made a great deal of effort to contact living Parrys – I am quite happy just to be in touch with the steady stream of researchers who contact me, since the ParryONS is a fairly large study.  It will be extremely time consuming collecting the records up to date, yet alone do all the communication that would be necessary.  But it occurred to me that perhaps, for queries about certain families, I should be seeking out living descendants.  I knew that the great, great granddaughter of Sir William Edward Parry published several books – indeed, I have her biography of Sir William Edward Parry on my bookshelf.  Unfortunately, having found an address for her through some online research papers, I then found what I suspect will be a notice for her death at http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/74153/parry .

So, now I am pondering - should I proceed to look for other descendants of this family?  In fact, should I change my own intentions regarding the study as a whole, and make more effort to contact living Parrys?  (Certainly, if the DNA project is ever to succeed, that will probably be necessary.)  At times like this, I am reminded of how different One-Name Studies can be.  Back in 2008, Andrew Millard made a post to the Forum comparing the way in which the Pomeroy Family Association (PFA) and my Parry Study were tackling research (http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/goons/2008-07/1214948300  ).   I remember thinking at the time that perhaps the way in which the PFA had a very specific aim (“The aim of the project is to reconstruct the family trees of everyone who calls themselves by any of the surnames we associate, either historically or in the present-day, as a variant of, or related to, Pomeroy.”) was something I should consider for the Parry ONS, rather than just “carrying out” a one-name study.  It is slightly depressing to look at the post on my blog that Andrew refers to and to read how many things I listed then, which are still “ongoing projects” – would a more specific goal would have helped these get finished?   

Actually, probably not – the rest of life would still have got in the way and, to be honest, part of the fun and excitement of the study, for me, are the unexpected avenues I end up going down.  But what the reminder has done is helped to provide some focus for getting things back on track, after so many months of other activities taking priority.  I think this is going to be a good year for the study!

How has your study grown this year?

That was the question posed on the Forum at the end of last year. I don’t currently keep statistics on the Parry study (mental note to do so in the future!). However, I do keep a list of all communication, so I can tell from that, that I had 20 new Parry related contacts over the course of 2011. That’s down on previous years (26 in 2010, 31 in 2009 and over 50 in each the two years before that). Although that might be a sign of less people researching, I suspect much of the reason for the reduction is my own lack of activity.

It is good to take stock occasionally of how the study has progressed – even when it serves as a reminder of things that haven’t yet been achieved (after all, I’m even less likely to do something if I don't remember it!) And, although I may not have managed to write about these events at the time, during 2011 the probable author of the pedigree sheets from Hereford library was identified, I learnt that there is evidence the Allington Parry family used the “fess and three lozenges” coat of arms and therefore linked themselves to the Herefordshire “Golden Valley” family, and Parry entries were collected from numerous sources (sometimes unexpectedly, as when the archaeology group visited a local museum to look at the roman collection, but browsed the social history exhibits as well, turning up three Parrys for me).

2012 has made a promising start, with both a new Herefordshire Parry contacting me and someone joining the Parry DNA project (not actually a Parry but, with the low numbers involved in the project so far, I welcome any interest.) So, instead of just causing me to look back, the main result of asking the question has been a positive thought – the opportunities are there for 2012, so how am I going to make the best use of them, in order to progress the study?

Happy Christmas

The above shows a recent ebay purchase - a sample Christmas card produced by E. W. Parry of 100 Regent St, probably dating from 1885 (based on the handwritten note on the back.)

This year much of my time has been taken up with family matters, but the ONS still continues, albeit slowly, and I'd like to wish all my readers a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2012.

A plethora of places

I'm always interested in places named Parry - wondering what their history is and how they got the name. Today I found quite a collection, all in the same area.

It started from a comment on one of the blogs I follow, which referred to "Parry Primary". The blog, Good Morning Yesterday, is about life in Singapore in the 1950s & 60s, so I promptly searched Google for "Parry Primary, Singapore".

The map image says it all really:



It must be a headache for postal deliveries - especially if people fail to address letters correctly!

I'd love to know how this naming came about.

Remembering Geoff Riggs

I heard today that Geoff Riggs has passed away. I first met Geoff at a family history fair at Stoneleigh in 2002. At the time he was one of two people manning the Gwent FHS stand but we somehow got talking about One-Name Studies – I was thinking of joining the Guild, having seen all the good advice being provided on the forum about searching the 1901 census, which had recently been re-released. As I continued chatting to the other Gwent member, I became aware that Geoff had left – only to re-appear shortly later with the Guild treasurer, who was ready to take my membership fee!

It’s always stuck in my mind as an example of how Geoff made the most of opportunities to promote the Guild and, whilst I didn’t know him as well as many others did, his enthusiasm for genealogy was always apparent.

The photograph shows the roller banner produced for the Welsh area, which Geoff brought along to the Guild Conference in 2009 – I was thrilled to see the Parry surname being advertised so prominently.



Geoff’s own web site at http://www.riggs.org.uk/Study/Riggsologist.htm shows the impressive work he’s done and an obituary by Roy Stockdill can be found at http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/GENBRIT/2011-06/1307901493 .

No doubt there will be many more tributes in the coming days.

Pondering some issues from the Guild Conference

Before I left the Conference, I was given some other Parry information – six certificates from St George’s, in Birmingham, transcribed by Guild members as part of a Marriage Challenge. Certificates are always a welcome addition to my collection, since they help to confirm the links between people. However, over this last year, I stopped submitting entries to the Challenges, since I didn’t have the time to check for mis-transcriptions in the index details, or look for the marriages on the IGI etc., before submission. I almost re-started this week, when there was a message on the forum about the forthcoming Lymington challenge – until I realised that it was actually a repeat and I already have the two marriages from there. Good job I am not quite as disorganised as I sometimes think, and my BMD files were marked up to show those entries as already found.

It’s over a week now since the Guild Conference and organisation and technology are probably the two main issues that have been on my mind since then. John Hanson’s talk, Researching and Recording a large ONS, was based on his work with the Halsted Trust (The Halsted ONS, I have just discovered, has two Parry entries in it :) ) Despite having heard Jeanne Bunting some years ago describe the difficulties caused by the multiple copies of pedigrees and research papers found when the Halsted study was taken over, I still don’t add a date to all my own printed information so that it is clear which is the latest version. This can easily be done by adding a footer to documents, with automatic text fields for either last saved, or last printed etc., so it is one of my goals to do this from now on and also to gradually work through my past files adding them.

Keeping a research log is another suggestion I have often heard but have never yet managed to maintain for long (a book on my desk only works if I am at my desk, a log on the computer only works when the computer is on etc.) I do have a spreadsheet for keeping track of correspondence but what alternative methods do people find successful as a research log? Is there a good piece of software (or a way of better managing the software I already have), I wonder?

Regarding useful websites – such sites often get mentioned on the Forum at a time when I am too busy to extract all the Parry details and, although I have tried to keep a spreadsheet of such sites, so that I can return to them later, I often find myself printing the web page as a reminder instead. But John mentioned taking screenshots or printing to pdf - since I invariable visit the website initially just to check if there are actually any Parrys, that’s a much more efficient system than having to remember the spreadsheet, then find/open it and copy the url across. (It might help avoid the mounting paper piles, as well!)

Another tip, having all the ONS data on an external hard-drive (and backing it up to a pc/laptop), seems a reversal of the normal way of doing things but actually could be more sensible. Having been developing the Parry study over a period of time, which has involved several computers (and other things stored on the computers), I’ve run into problems with filing systems and synchronisation between a pc and a laptop. So having the study data as a totally separate entity on an external drive could be a better solution for the future. I was planning to re-organise the data anyway, with a view to it being more understandable if someone needed to take it over, so this could be a good opportunity to pull things together into a totally new format.

Dick Eastman gave me more things to consider, in his talk on the Family History World in 10 years time:
What about archiving emails? Few of us write letters in the way that people did in the past, so how else will our descendants experience that thrill of reading something personal from us?
That issue is relatively easy to solve (both my online and computer based mail systems seem to have the facility to archive messages) but this next topic is more of a challenge:
As society moves towards being “online, everywhere, all the time”, working practices are changing and shared data is being transferred so that it is no longer stored on our computers, but is held on servers “out there”, in the “cloud”.

How will this impact on my methods for carrying out the study?

Many of us who began our family history during the last ten years or so would probably struggle to deal with a totally paper based ONS – and I won’t finish the Parry study in my lifetime, so the methods used need to remain relevant to the upcoming styles of newer researchers. At the moment, my website is static and not updated often enough. Shared information, available to all, has the potential to allow for much more collaborative working – something I’d obviously like to see happening with the Parry ONS, so that could be a very exciting development (if I can learn the technology!)

But…

Whilst working practices might change, how much will character and attitudes – if people pick the easy options now, isn’t that still likely to happen? We already see people happily linking into information and pedigrees, on sites such as Ancestry, with scant regard for accuracy. And contacts often pass on to me “facts” which I find to be incorrect. Sometimes it may only be a minor issue, such as reversed names etc - but that still takes time to investigate and clarify.

So how can any form of quality control be maintained when many people are all contributing to the same work in progress?

Dick did mention one possible solution, in the form of an “unalterable Wiki” – where information cannot be deleted so, rather than “correcting” what someone else has written, people would be able to add information and justify it, whilst still leaving the original in place so that future readers could judge all the evidence for themselves. This option does sound interesting - earlier this year someone on the Forum raised the question about using a Wiki for a one-name study site and there are Guild members already doing so. So perhaps some combination of a Wiki, linked to pedigrees built using a program such as The Next Generation or Second Site, which are designed for web sharing, is worth considering. I imagine it would be easier to update than my current web site, and more effective in engaging others to contribute.

But then, as well as the quality control issue, am I back to pedigrees spreading out over large areas so as to become unclear, or one person per page views that make it difficult to follow the various cousin level relationships, - the very reasons I deliberately decided to draw out my pedigrees in the first place!

As you can see, the conference has certainly left me pondering how to rise to the challenge of making the most of the technological advances, whilst still retaining the accuracy and clarity which (hopefully) are hallmarks of the Parry ONS.

(And that was just from two of the talks!)

Anzac Day

Recently, on one of the mailing lists, the War Grave Photographic project (at http://www.twgpp.org) was mentioned. This database contains 788 Parrys, including 23 Australians and 9 from New Zealand. A search on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission site returns a total of 821 Parrys, with 34 from Australia, and 10 New Zealanders.

The photographic project includes graves up to the present day, and both sites include other surnames, such as Parryman, in the results, so more work is needed to clarify the overall totals, but the following is the list of those from Australia and New Zealand included on either or both sites:

Name, Rank, Date of Death, Age
A Parry, Sergeant, 20/02/1950, 30
Allan John Parry, Corporal, 23/12/1943, 27
Athol Wynne Parry, Gunner, 11/05/1915, 19
Benjamin David Parry, Private, 22/07/1942, 35
Bert Allison Parry, Lance Corporal, 02/03/1917, Age n/k
Charles David Parry-Okeden , Flight Lieutenant, 23/03/1945, 32
Charles Edward Parry, Corporal, 05/10/1943, 26
Charles Francis Parry, Private, 21/11/1942, 22
Claude Herbert Parry, Lance Corporal, 04/10/1917, 20
Cyril Strahan Parry, Lieutenant Colonel, 21/11/1947, 55
Edgar George Jarvis Parry, Staff Sergeant, 18/06/1941, 36
Ernest Parry, Private, 25/04/1918, Age n/k
Ernest Arthur Parry, Flight Sergeant, 29/11/1944, 19
Ernest Charles Parry, Captain, 06/10/1917, 31
Errol Vernon Parry, Private, 25/07/1942, 32
Francis Parry, Private, 04/04/1918, Age n/k
Frank Parry, Sapper, 11/08/1942, 38
Frederick Parry, Private, 19/07/1916, 20
Frederick Quiney Parry, Private, 19/11/1917, Age n/k
George Edwin Parry, Private, 30/05/1918, 28
George Edwin Parry, Private, 20/01/1945, 36
Griffith Martial Parry, Corporal, 15/04/1917, 24
Harold Leslie Parry, Leading Aircraftman, 11/01/1941, 25
Harry Leslie Parry, Second Lieutenant, 28/06/1915, Age n/k
Henry Parry, Private, 25/07/1916, 23
Henry Parry, Private, 17/06/1943, 38
Herbert Henry Parry, Private, 18/07/1915, Age n/k
Hubert Parry, Private, 23/08/1917, 19
Jack Alan Parry, Sergeant, 31/10/1942, 28
James Stephen Parry, Private, 09/06/1917, 21
John Parry, Private, 12/10/1916, 25
John Henry Parry, Private, 17/05/1941, 40
John Henry Parry, Private, 21/06/1941, 37
Joseph Stewart Parry, Sergeant, 29/09/1941, 26
Leslie Parry, Private, 01/09/1942, 33
Leslie Albert Parry, Private, 27/08/1943, 23
Morgan James Parry, Flight Sergeant, 16/03/1945, 22
Peleg Lloyd Parry, Lance Corporal, 15/11/1916, 28
Richard Walter Parry, Corporal, 26/04/1919, 34
Robert Duncan Parry, Private, 19/07/1916, 19
Robert Groves Parry, Private, 05/10/1943, 26
Ronald Wilfred Parry, Flight Sergeant, 13/01/1945, 20
W Parry, Chief Stoker, 22/04/1918, Age n/k
Walter Richard Parry, Able Seaman, 01/03/1942, 20
William Norman Glyn Parry, Trooper, 09/08/1916, 36

The generosity of Guild members

Back in June 2009, I wrote about discovering references to the burial, in Winchester Cathedral in 1634, of Roger Parry, rector of Hinton Ampner. After arriving at the conference today, I was given a photocopy of the register showing the burial entry, which had been obtained for me by a guild member. This was soon followed by a transcribed marriage certificate, produced as part of the St Albans marriage challenge, confirming that an entry indexed as both Parry and Tarry was actually a Tarry. Then another guild member stopped me in the corridor and handed me a piece from the Surrey Advertiser in January, featuring an Elizabeth Parry, whose memoir, “Thirty Men and a Girl: A Singer's Memoirs of War, Mountains, Travel, and Always Music” had recently been published.

It never ceases to amaze me how generous Guild members are, in giving their time to help each other. Each year I seem to come home from the conference not just with lessons learnt from the talks, but with additional information on the Parrys specifically.

Getting active again

Things have been picking up again recently. Several new Parry researchers have contacted me and a couple of others, who hadn’t been in touch for a while, have also written to send me information. Whilst life is still busy in other areas, it has reminded me just how much I enjoy working on the One-Name Study.

It's the Guild’s AGM and Conference this weekend. The first talk is by John Hanson and entitled, “Researching and Recording a Large One-Name Study”. Yes, I know that’s what I am already doing – but it sounds like a good opportunity to review where things are at and to get a kick-start back into activity.

Things don’t always go to plan….

I wrote in my journal, at the start of 2010, that I was feeling quite positive about the year ahead – I was obviously anticipating achieving quite a lot. However, things don’t always go to plan and, instead, I have spent much of it dealing with some “relative health issues”. Things are looking more positive now though so, hopefully, 2011 will be more successful.

To finish the year on a seasonal note, one of my favourite photographs taken during the recent snow (in the garden of a Parry family, just in case you wonder at the connection!)



Happy New Year everyone.

Barcheston

It was the Shipston Wool Fair today – a good opportunity for a day out, which also included a trip to nearby Barcheston, where several Parrys who are mentioned in the probate abstracts lived. There, in the main aisle of Barcheston church, was a memorial stone to Walter of Fell Mill, which would match to abstract number 609. It read:

In hopes of A Joyful Resurrection in Jesus Christ
Here Lyeth the Body of Walter perrey
Of Felmil A Dyer who departed this life
The first day of October ANNO DOM
1705 Ætatis Suæ 66

Though wee have lost our faithfull friend
In Christ wee hope he made his end
His Body in the Grave doth rest
To rise wee hope forever blest
All you that do this day pass by
As you are now so once was I
As I am now so shalt you be
Therefore prepare to follow me

The surname spelt Perrey is not necessarily a problem, stonemasons did make mistakes and surname spellings often varied in those days anyway.

But there was no coat of arms on the stone either. Which is interesting, given that Walter’s family being entitled to the arms of the Parrys of the Golden Vale is one of the reasons put forward by Boden for considering them as possible ancestors for Sir CHH Parry.

Clearly more research needed to find any evidence for that.

But a booklet about the Barcheston tapestries did at least tell me that a David Parry was paid for catching two otters in the River Stour. Pity none of the abstracts mention a David though!

Parry’s fit for a Prince!

Ignoring several half written blog entries, I could hardly let today pass by without mentioning an item being reported in newspapers and online – Prince Charles is to present a documentary for BBC Four, exploring the life and legacy of the composer, Hubert Parry.

I can imagine that provoking a surge of interest in the Parry family.

In some ways, that’s obviously a good thing. But I’m hoping the documentary confines itself to the man, his music, and those he influenced – more publicity for his "ancient pedigree", featuring various, seemingly non-existent, ancestors would not be helpful!

It’s probably too much to hope for though – even if the documentary is accurate, the reporting and follow-up articles may not be – I notice the Mirror’s site already reporting that Hubert Parry died in 1848 (No, that was his birth date).

Surely it’s not that difficult to check a few facts!

Mistranscriptions

I finally finished matching the Parrys in HEF 1871 back to 1861 recently – or, at least, I thought I had. Then I remembered that I’d only searched for Parry entries from FindMyPast, before comparing the details to those from Ancestry. I hadn’t done any of the variant spellings, such as Parrey. On the whole, that shouldn’t have been a problem – since I’d done those spellings when searching on Ancestry, & would pick up the entries when I compared the two. But since I’m trying to ensure my file is as complete as possible, I went back to FMP to collect the most obvious of the spelling variations.

It was a good job that I did since, whilst some had been on Ancestry, one couple turned out to be on Ancestry as Porrey, and another as Farrey, so I had actually missed those two. One of the Marriage Challenge results I received recently also led me to find a Parry mistranscribed in a census as Farry so clearly the P/F confusion is something I’ll have to look out for.

Once an entry has been found, it is often obvious why the names have been mistranscribed and it’s relatively easy to be sure what the correct name should be. But I have found two instances recently where people seem to have used Caroline and Catherine interchangeably, appearing in the Civil Registration indexes as one but in a census as the other. It’s almost impossible to tell from just the two entries whether there’s been a recording error or the person actually used both names.

Name variations have been an issue with several marriage challenges recently. I received two results from another challenge, where one turned out to be a Pavey, not Parry. Then I set out to prepare a submission for the Beaminster MC. I only had one entry, from 1903, so it should have been easy. But first I discovered that the entry was on FreeBMD as both Parcy & Parry. On checking the original indexes it turned out that FreeBMD was right, since the original indexes have it as both as well. That much is understandable – I’ve seen many words where "r" and "c" have been difficult to distinguish and the GRO would have indexed it as both if they were unsure.

But I then checked censuses and, from the 1911, managed to identify who is marrying who out of the 7 names shown on FreeBMD (Mary on twice and the other bride on with different spellings). Using the birthplace from 1911, I found Mary with her parents in 1891 and as a servant in 1901. But in 1881 the family are recorded as Pavey – and that’s the surname Richard, the father, appears to use when married in 1866 (and probably his birth in 1842 as well). Having since found the parents in 1901 and 1911, it seems likely that what started as a decision between Parcy or Parry has ended up as really being Pavey!

It will be interesting to see what the marriage register itself actually says.

I guess I shouldn’t complain – I can usually find the Parrys, even when they're hidden under Porrey, Purry, Pansy (and even "Lang"!). But I’ve just dealt with a query regarding a Parry who married a Margaret Oudenrode. Now that’s a surname with potential, when it comes to mistranscriptions!

Patience is a virtue that pays off!

I picked up a second-hand book recently, “A calendar of letters relating to North Wales, 1533-circa 1700,” published in 1967 from various collections in the NLW. North Wales has a high concentration of Parrys, including some families that can be traced back to the 1600s, so it’s likely the book will help with general background to the times, as well as the specifics regarding the Parrys listed in the index.

Several of the entries relate to Jeffrey Parry of Rhydolion, who happens to be the earliest ancestor in the pedigree of the Jones-Parry family shown on my web pages at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/im.griffiths/parryfamilyhistory/parrytrees/jonesparry.htm. He was described on the Llanbedrog church site as “a zealous puritan from Shropshire who was an officer in the Commonwealth army”, something I’ve not yet found proof of. However, the book of letters quotes a NLW manuscript describing him as “a great Heaven-driver of Llyn & a zealous maintayner of Coventicles”. so that’s a new lead to follow up regarding his religious activities.

Some years ago, whilst browsing bookshops in Hay-on-Wye, I spotted a book entitled “Royal Visits & Progresses to Wales” by Edward Parry. The price meant I didn’t buy it – but now I have just discovered that the book is available for download from Googlebooks. (A much cheaper option!)

Was it worth the wait? Apart from acquiring an item by a Parry, does it tell me anything useful? Yes, perhaps it does. Whilst it was published in 1851, so repeats the errors of some other antiquarian works of that time, it does include transcriptions from manuscripts. One of these refers to “Cornet Jeffrey Parry”, who lived near Pwllheli, and who was to be given money to distribute in a way that furthered the work of the Gospel. Wikipedia indicates that a Cornet is a new and junior officer. Could this be the confirmation that Jeffrey was indeed an officer in the Commonwealth Army?

According to the pedigree, Jeffrey Parry died in 1658 and the letter was written in 1657, so he either died fairly young or this refers to someone else. But, despite the general popularity of the surname, he is the only Jeffrey Parry I know of in that area so, yet again, this could be a possible lead into the origins of the Jones Parry family.

Let’s hope I don’t have to wait too long to find out more.

Finding a goldmine!

As I mentioned earlier this year, I have set up a ParryONS account on Twitter to see if that is a more effective method than this blog, for keeping people informed about the study. Initially I’ve just been posting about activities and not tried following other people but, since the Guild has now set up its own account, I thought I’d try following that.

Quite soon I found myself being followed – and struck gold when I checked out the follower’s website at http://welshfamilyhistory.ning.com/ , which referenced the British Library theses database. I already knew about this system through another interest, but had never registered since the thesis I wanted then wasn’t available. However, thanks to Darris, I've now learnt about a doctorate written in 1994 regarding sources for family history, with particular reference to Wales – and it uses the Parrys of Llidiardau as a case study.

This thesis is available to download for free and looks to be a real gold mine – not just with regard to the Parrys but also the whole process of researching in Wales. Additionally, it will be interesting to see what has changed over the last 16 years.

(And, having registered with the site, I now find I can obtain the other thesis I wanted for free as well – it will just take 30 days for it to be digitised. What a brilliant resource).

I came across the following logo on an ebay item recently, a postcard printed in 1910 by J.Richard Parry Jr, of Denver, Colorado.



So far, I haven’t been able to find any other information on the publisher but perhaps he is connected to the J. Richard Parry who illustrated a book in 1910 called “The Mystery of Bonanza Trail”.

On another subject, it was mentioned earlier this year on the ISOGG mailing list about work to combine documentary resources with DNA approaches to tracing immigrant ancestors, especially with regard to indentured servants who travelled to Virginia and Maryland. Since one of the Parry abstracts is for a John Parry, who died in Virginia in 1637/8, this could be specifically relevant to the Parry ONS. Having checked one of the recommended sites, which has a database of immigrant servants, I also found five more Parrys (all later than John). So this is clearly a topic I shall be watching for progress on.

I haven’t commented since the DNA seminar but both that, and then WDYTYA Live, which was on the following weekend, were useful (and enjoyable) days out. I even got to meet some of the names I see so often on the mailing lists.

It’s nice to be able to put some faces to names now.

PARRY DNA

Tomorrow is the Guild’s bi-annual DNA Developments seminar. After the previous one, in May 2007, I wrote that a lot more "paper research" was needed before DNA testing could be used effectively in Parry research. I think that is still true but at least there is now a Parry DNA project with one person tested, as well as a group on Ancestry containing another set of results.

So, some progress, but still a long way to go!

New Year, New Start!

Well, not quite, since we’re already into February and this is my first post. I don’t generally write New Year resolutions but last year’s blogging wasn’t exactly successful, with only three posts all year. So this year I am aiming to do a better job of keeping people informed about the study.

There’s little point trying to catch up with everything that happened over the past few months but one of the "highlights" included finding out from a Tudors site (at http://tudors.crispen.org/chronology/index.html) that a "William Parry of the Persian expedition" introduced coffee into England in 1601.

Really?

It turns out that William Parry produced the first printed reference to "coffee" in its english modern form, when he wrote about the travels of the adventurer Anthony Sherley. Parry had been part of Sherley’s expedition to Persia, in which Sherley was attempting to persuade the Shah to form an alliance against the Turks and also promote English trade interests.

So not quite introduced coffee itself, but played a part in making it known, at least. I wonder which William Parry that was?

A reference on the Forum to the History of Parliament reminded me that I have some early Parrys to look up. But it also set me searching for information about a Sir George Parry. I’ve come across references to this name on several occasions – one referred to him as a commissioner for Dorset who met Prince Rupert prior to the battle of Naseby, there’s also a poem about Sir George by Robert Herrick. Unfortunately, the relevant volume of parliamentary history is not due to be published until 2016. But one of the family tree references I found suggests George died in Ireland in 1660 – I’d never noticed that before. Could he be a link between the Parry family from Herefordshire (known to have moved down into the Wiltshire and Dorset areas during the 1600s) and one of the Parry families from North Wales claiming the same coat of arms?

Definitely a possibility to follow up.

Many more records have become easily available recently, as Ancestry now have all of the BMD civil registration indexes transcribed. However, not all the information is available from the main index pages so there’s a lot of work to be done extracting the rest of the details. With so much now available online, this year will have to see a shift to finding more effective ways of dealing with some aspects of the study.

New websites and technology may come in useful for this. GenealogyWise, a genealogical social networking site, began last year – I did set up a Parry group but so far haven’t found this very helpful. Something that looks like it will be much more relevant is Google Wave, a new collaborative tool. By setting up waves for specific families, it should be possible for researchers to work together, adding information as it’s found or confirmed. That will be much more effective than my current system where people are emailing me and I then try to add the information to a web page (as with the Colston Parrys (http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~parryresearch/colston.htm). That is too reliant on me having the time to draw up the web page. By using the waves, information can be collected and arranged by other people as well, and then perhaps a web page created at a future date if appropriate. Seeing the instant results on the waves is also perhaps more likely to encourage people to share what they know.

One final thing to add is that I am also trying out using Twitter to let people know what’s happening with the study. Since this blog isn’t getting updated frequently, because many things take time to accomplish with there being so many Parrys, this will allow me to let people know about any ongoing activities.

You can find me at http://twitter.com/ParryONS if anyone’s interested.

The Blog Returns

My apologies to anyone who looked for the blog recently and found that it had been removed. Somehow I fell foul of the Google robots which look out for "spam blogs". Thanks to Jay for pointing it out to me, and to the Google reviewer who restored it over the weekend.

Clearly, I need to improve the quality of my writing!

I’ve been working on a couple of pedigrees over the last few weeks, in response to emails from other researchers. One had sent me the details of several certificates – since it’s a Monmouthshire/Breconshire family, I already have them in some of my files, so I have been adding the information from the certificates and checking where there are still gaps to be researched. I’ve also identified a possible earlier generation – but since it’s in that period just before the censuses, it’s going to be difficult to confirm the link.

The other pedigree relates to the family of a James Patrick Parry – the researcher had sent me an article he’d written about James. Unfortunately it is mainly in german, but there was sufficient information for me to recognise the family as being that of Gilbert Sidney Parry (author of the probate abstracts book), and of the Sidney Parry who drowned in the Serpentine. One of the references from the article relates to the "Topographical and Historical Account of the Parish of St Mary-le-Bone", which I then found on Google Books. This shows a burial of a William Parry in 1826, who is described as "of Montagu Square, and of Walton Hall, in the County of Suffolk". I knew about the Montagu Square address from his probate entry, but it’s the first time I have come across the Walton Hall reference. I am hoping that, that might help in researching the earlier generations – since there’s reputed to be a link to the family of Sir William Edward Parry, the arctic explorer, as well, and that’s another family whose pedigree becomes unclear in the 1700s.

Ancestry have now fully transcribed the civil registration marriage index for England and Wales from 1916 to 1983, so that will help me to meet the Guild’s requirements for collecting the BMDs. It will still be a long process to gather the full details though, and to match up the full names of spouses properly, especially given the number of marriages between Parrys and either other Parrys or other frequently occurring Welsh names.

I took a trip to North Wales last week and spent a couple of days walking around graveyards, so I now have a collection of Parry memorials to transcribe. It was a good learning experience – I must remember next time to take a tape recorder, just in case the inscriptions on the images are not sufficiently readable. It takes too long to transcribe them by hand whilst there, when time is limited to day trips.

Finally, having travelled all that way in search of memorials, today I discovered one closer to home, when we noticed that one of the plaques in the local park is for a Parry. An effective end to the weekend!

1911 census completed (sort of!)

The final areas of the England and Wales 1911 census were released earlier this month and there is now a total of 28,375 Parrys on the site. I have been collecting the entries for each area as they have become available but my file only has 28,055 in it, since the areas released earlier have now been amended. This is an issue with all of the census sites – initial transcriptions are rarely perfect so there is an ongoing process of error correction, making it difficult to keep an extracted file up to date. Some of the totals for the Welsh counties in 1911 have changed by hundreds so it will probably be quicker to re-extract them this time, rather than trying to identify the changes. I am hoping that such a large number of changes is due to errors with the uploading process, perhaps some areas missed out etc, and that future amendments will relate to fewer entries. Re-extracting the data will become increasingly difficult once I start adding further information to individuals or match up entries across years. Transcription corrections also have a knock-on effect for any derived information, such as statistical analysis or distribution mapping. Fortunately, given the number of Parrys there are, gaining or losing just a few of them should not make too much difference to the conclusions drawn from any analysis, so it may not need redoing. But it will be frustrating to know that is isn’t totally accurate.

If keeping extracted files up to date is one of the challenges of carrying out an ONS, then identifying the surname when it is mispelt is certainly another, especially with early records, when spelling wasn’t standardised. I have sometimes wondered whether I should be looking at spellings such as "Paris", for very early appearances of the Parrys in London, bearing in mind how the place would be pronounced in french. So I was amused to see the following, in the recent release of the Cecil papers on British History Online:
[1611–12, January 5]."A bill of charges from Brussells to London."
For rydyng from Brussell to Parys by coache eyght dayes and a halfe.25s
For dyet eyght dayes and a halfe.22s
For my Lord Imbassettors gardner to goe withe me two and from in Parrys to by my things—given him in Crowns.6s
From Parrys to Roane, coache hire.7s6d
For expences in Parrys for dyet and loging.li80
For porters hire in Parrys to carye trees abord the boat.30
For portters hyre in Roane and carrag by watter.43
Given to the boye in the house to laye my trees in the grond.10
Spent in Roan for aleven dayes and a halfe for dyetli86
For horse hire from Roan to Deepe46
Also given in earnest to the boatemaster from Parrys to Roane.30

I guess anyone looking for the city of Paris should be considering spelling variations as well!

There’s been some useful information sent to me by other researchers over the past few months, such as extractions from a number of Breconshire parish registers, and details of individual 1911 census entries. One of these was for a man known to be a performing pianist, yet he appeared in the census as the manager of a shoe shop in an area of what is now Birmingham. In the course of identifying where the parish was, I came across the Historical Streets Project, which could be useful for finding particular addresses in the early censuses.

There’s also been some links to follow up. One was a news report about the excavation of a WW1 mass grave at Fromelles, France, and the CWGC’s attempts to identify the bodies. The casualty lists of possible soldiers includes one Parry, from the Australian forces:
320 Private Parry Frederick 29th Battalion

Frederick is mentioned on the main CWGC site.
Name: PARRY, FREDERICK
Initials: F
Nationality: Australian
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: Australian Infantry, A.I.F.
Unit Text: 29th Bn.
Date of Death: 19/07/1916
Service No: 320
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 1.
Memorial: V.C. CORNER AUSTRALIAN CEMETERY MEMORIAL, FROMELLES

Any relatives are being encouraged to come forward to assist with the task of identification.

Other sites include one for Australian Honours, which has 80 Parrys, and the UK Surnames Genealogy Contact site which has 29 entries for people researching Parrys. A few of them I recognise but the others I should probably contact at some stage. There’s always a trade-off with doing that – time spent (which could be considerable, if I happen to have information on their family) against the information to be gained from the contact. That’s something I have been considering with regard to another method some Guild members use for contacting people – the social networking sites, such as Facebook. Facebook recently allowed the registration of usernames, which prompted discussion on the Forum. "Parry" as a username had already been taken but I decided to register ParryONS - the only benefit seems to be that it makes it easier for people to find me by using that in the URL, rather than a string of numbers, but I thought it was worth doing something. I don’t currently have a One-Name Study group on the site, since there is already a Parry Family Group and a couple of "fun" groups for the surname, but I sometimes wonder if it would be worth creating a closed group for the study, as a possible way of contacting some of the "younger generation" that frequent Facebook. But it’s that trade-off issue again.

I was surprised recently to realise that it was 2007 when I last worked on a particular census page for the internet. Everything takes a long time with a study of a high frequency surname. I did let my Ancestry sub lapse some months ago, in order to spend more time working systematically on the vital records, but the lack of complete census transcriptions elsewhere (and a half price sale) tempted me back. I have been concentrating on collecting some BMDs from FindMyPast’s parish records but, now that Ancestry’s records are accessible again, I shall also return to comparing their parish records to the BVRI2. I had always thought that Ancestry’s "England and Wales Christening records" (and the similar database of marriages) was the same as the BVRI2 but closer inspection earlier in the year indicated that there were differences between them. I therefore started to extract the BVRI2 entries as well, for comparison. There is the option to save files from the BVRI2 cdroms as either rtf or gedcom so, not being sure which would be best, I extracted a small number of entries using both. On conversion of the two files into spreadsheets using LDS Companion, I was surprised to find that, not only did I occasionally get differences in the results (eg the rtf method didn’t cope with accented words, so Thoós and Joós became Tho and Jo), but also some strange errors crept in on the gedcom version (loss of a couple of ages, a couple of grooms names appearing as if they were the bride’s father’s name). Also, neither of the converted files included comments such as "Husband previously married".

So it now appears that I may need to extract all entries using both methods and compare the results of that process first, as well as add back in any "previously married" comments, in order to make sure I have an accurate BVRI2 extraction, before I can then do a comparison of the BVRI2 to the information on Ancestry. It will probably still be quicker to do it that way, rather than checking all entries individually, since there are 3749 entries, but it shows how a "simple" task can end up being much more complicated than originally expected.

Fortunately the correspondence level has dropped recently (although I still have some long outstanding items for which I need to either put together, or check through, information). But there have only been four new contacts since the end of April, three via email and one by post. The postal one did involve putting together information on a couple of people, but it turned out to be a useful exercise. One of them was Roger Parry, a member of the Golden valley family from Herefordshire, but who was rector of Hinton Ampner, in Wiltshire. Searching for more information online, I was able to find a reference to his burial at Winchester Cathedral 18 May 1634, ae. 88. (on http://www.wargs.com/family/stratton.html). Another site indicates there is a note in the Hinton Ampner registers which states that, in 1576, "Roger Parry Parson of Hinton took Possession of his Parsonage the sixth Day of May, and did reade his Articles in the presence of Mr. Richard Beckensall, Robert Streeter & others." The site also mentions a note from the 1634 register of Hinton-Ampner. The original is in Latin, but the site author has translated it as "Roger Parry the Rector of this church who resided here 58 years died at Winchester where he was buried; he lies in the Temple of the Holy Trinity in the Bordal [?] Chapel, May 24th, in the eighty-eighth year of his life."

Obviously the original parish records need checking to confirm the entries but, when I eventually get around to writing some web pages about Parry occupations, it will be quite interesting to produce one about those in the ministry, considering the number of cathedrals with a Parry connection.

Continuing on the subject of occupations, a message on the Forum yesterday led to a site with details of EU farm subsidies – so I now have a list of around 400 payments made to Parry farmers. Comparing that to directory information will go on the "to do" list.

I also noticed yesterday that what is described on the BMD pages of Ancestry as "Marriages 1984 - 2005 (transcribed)" actually goes to a page entitled "England & Wales, Marriage Index: 1916-2005" – so they must be about to release the fullly transcribed records, as they did with the births. That will be a help (although I imagine I will still need to work through each quarter to add the spouses surnames, as I am doing with the mothers maiden names for the births).

And finally, I should have guessed I might be tempting fate to say how little correspondence there had been recently, since I promptly received an email relating to a new contact and also a second email from a new contact I’d answered two weeks ago.