William Perry (died between 1847 and 1851) - A Brick Wall

Well, having outlined some progresses made in my family tree research and blogging about the bits and pieces I have found, time for the dreaded genealogical "brick walls", where you get to a certain point and cannot go further. I have a few of those.

One of them is the family of a great great great grandfather, William Perry.

Thus far I have learned that William Perry was living in St Marylebone in London and was a servant and a bachelor when he married Mary Ann Smith, spinster, on 23 December 1840. He was a bachelor at the time of marriage.

Of his family up to the point of marriage I know that his father was John Perry, who was a "Gentleman" (a rank or profession that seems to cover a multitude of possibilities). One of the witnesses to his marriage was a "Thomas Perry", who may have been a brother, or uncle, or cousin.

By 1842 William and Mary Ann Perry had moved to Louth in Lincolnshire where William became a schoolmaster and Mary Ann a schoolmistress. Their four children were born at Louth: William Henry (1842-1908); Mary Ann (b. 1844); Emily (1846-1908); and George Frederick (1847-1881).

William Perry died by the time of the 1851 census when his wife Mary Ann was listed as a widow. He does not seem to have died in the Louth district, and there were several men named William Perry who died between 1847 and 1851.

That he died before the 1851 census means that his birthplace was not recorded in a census. I cannot locate a William and Mary Perry in the 1841 census that would seem to fit this couple, nor do I know exactly when they made the move to Louth, nor where they lived immediately after marriage (i.e. the 1841 census year). Not sure where to go from there. As he was a schoolmaster, perhaps there might be records for the school, although I do not know if this was at Louth. As I said, a brick wall.

I do know slightly more about his wife's Smith family, which given the pervasiveness of Smiths in England I think is quite something, although the brick wall soon looms for that family too. It also brought up an incidence of cousinal intermarriage.