Last Sunday was Father’s Day here in Canada. Time to remember my own father and the other men whose genes I have inherited. I can trace the Perkins family line back to John Perkins, son of Joseph Perkins and Ann Mason Sutton. He was born in Withybrook, WAR in 1833 and christened at the Independent Chapel in Stretton under Fosse. This would make the Mason family Non Conformists. He married Clara Benford in 1859 and lived in Claybrooke Magna where they had 2 sons, John Thomas and Walter Joseph. John was the Village Blacksmith as well as serving many public volunteer roles in the village. His son, John Thomas was also a Blacksmith until he left the village in 1910. My Dad, Tertius Bernard Jack Perkins was the only child of John Thomas Perkins and Sarah Jane Sleath. They were married at St. Peter’s in 1901 and he was born in 1904. In 1913, at the age of 9, he emigrated to Canada with his parents.
Joseph Perkins remains something of a brick wall. I believe him to be the son of Thomas and Dorothy Perkins and christened at Sharnford,LEI in 1795. He is listed as a Butcher on John and Clara’s Marriage Certificate. The other men, John and John Thomas were Blacksmiths and my Dad was a Telecommunications Technician with the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway).
Thomas Perkins? C. 1765
Joseph Perkins 1795 – 1838
John Perkins 1833 – 1896
John Thomas Perkins 1863 – 1936 Walter Joseph Perkins 1864 – 1938
Tertius Bernard Jack Perkins 1904 – 1980
John David Perkins b/d 1942
If I look at naming patterns, I see the name JOHN carried down. Since John named his second son, Walter Joseph, the Joseph after his father, could I be correct in that he named his first son John Thomas after himself and his grandfather THOMAS? Someday……I may discover the elusive record which will prove me correct.
How long had this family been on the land in |Middle England? They seem to have inhabited the border areas of Warwickshire and Leicestershire along what was Watling Street and Fosse Way, the old Roman Roads. Over the centuries, this area had been occupied by the Britons, Romans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans . What stories these people would have to tell…..and if I think I am ENGLISH, perhaps I should take another look or at least, take a DNA test, given the peoples who have emigrated to this land.
A Genealogist goes Wandering 