The bloodhound's trail

My current publication project is limited to the five generations from my father's parents to their great grandparents. That means the oldest generation in my book will be my 4th great-grandparents (great-great-great-great-grandparents), where I can get that far back with reliable research. Writing the story of that oldest generation inevitably means going another generation back to locate their parents. In practice, I keep going as far as the evidence allows, which sometimes gives some clues to the family origins.

This week I am writing about one of those detective stories – one that I hope illustrates a technique that I have found useful. The story is from the Parry side of my family and it is one of my favourite discoveries. The technique is to take known facts and try to predict some other things that might help verify them. Then look for evidence of those (predicted) events.

Griffith William Parry and his Irish bride Mary Ann Mustare were the founders of the Parry family of Gosford. Griffith was a convict from London and his family is easy to trace.

My normal research process usually starts with the birth or baptism records of a person, in this case Griffith William Parry. Next I look for other children of the same parents, often baptised in the same Parish. Next, I look for the marriage of the parents - again, often in the same Parish. Then I look for burials of the parents. All this information gives clues to when the parents may have been born and baptised, which leads to the same rigmarole at the next level up the tree.

In this case Henry Richards Parry married Catherine Smith in London in 1795. One of the witnesses was Griffith Richards Parry. Henry and Catherine had seven children:

• Richard (1795–1834),
• Griffith William (1799–1859) - our convict!
• Henry (1801–1805),
• Jane (1803–1871),
• Henry (1805–1866),
• Catherine (1807–1859),
• Morris (1808–1883).

Other family trees on the internet have a range of suggestions as to the parents of Henry Parry, mainly in London, but I found it difficult to find evidence to prove any of them to my normal standard (three supporting pieces of evidence). One tree suggested that Henry was born in Wales. That made sense to me because Parry is a Welsh name!

Assembling the evidence available:

• Henry Parry was shown as '21 and more' when he was married, so he was born before 1774.
• Henry's age was given as 58 when he died in 1824, which would place his birth about 1766.
• The Griffith Parry who was witness to the marriage died in 1830 and his age was given as 60. That would place his birth about 1770. Combine this with the fact that both Griffith and Henry had the middle name 'Richards' makes it very likely they were brothers.
• It was common for the first son to be named after the father's father, so the name of Henry's father could have been 'Richard'.
• The use of 'Richards' as a middle name may have other significance. It seems to have been important to the brothers, because Griffith re-wrote his name on one document to include it.

My normal line of research did not yield any worthwhile results. There were options, but none had supporting clues. So I decided to use the idea of brothers Henry and Richard being born about 1766 and 1770 respectively. I searched all of the UK for Henry Parrys baptised within two years of 1766 (there were 39), and Griffith Parrys baptised two years either side of 1770 (there were only 8). I looked at the two lists for places in common, then had a closer look at matching places for matching parents.

I could only find one pair of brothers that could match the two young men in London! They were both baptised in Llanfrothen, Wales to parents Richard and Jane Parry. Richard Parry and Jane Richards married in Llanfrothen in 1749. 

As is often the case, the fog of research clears and the next generation becomes easier. I was easily able to find that Henry's father was baptised at Llanfrothen in 1731 and his father's name was Morris Parry (the mother's name was not given). This was the clincher for me! The family name connection with an unusual name like Morris was a final link between Henry Parry and his Welsh heritage.

My supporting evidence is:

• Henry Parry's baptism in Llanfrothen is within two years of his predicted birth (based on age at burial).
• Henry's brother Griffith was a witness at Henry's marriage. Griffith's baptism also matches what was predicted by his age at burial.
• Henry followed standard naming convention in naming his first born son after his father.
• Henry and his brother Griffith both used their mother's maiden name as their middle name.
• Henry named his last child after his paternal grandfather, Morris Parry.

From this discovery, we can understand a little more about Henry Parry's life. His father died when he was seven and his mother when he was 13. Henry seems to have been well educated. There was probably some family money that allowed Henry and his brother Griffith to move to London and get into a trade, in Henry's case, candlemaker (tallow chandler). Henry named his second son Griffith after his brother.

All my family history research, to date has been about English, Irish and Scottish families, to this first Welsh connection gave me a small thrill. Maybe I need a holiday in Wales to learn how to pronounce Llanfrothen and Trawsfynydd! 

I think it is unlikely now that I will discover the Cornish connection needed to complete the compete British set, although the Wallbridge family in Dorset may well have spoken Cornish in the 1200s.