What follows is a posting on the community forum of Greater Napanee, a few moments ago.

Is there a resident of Napanee who can help solve a family history puzzle for a visitor to this Forum from Sheffield, England?

A few weeks ago, I came by chance upon a blog that was kept up for only a one month – February 2007 – by “Barista”. (http://millerfryer.blogspot.com/) The blog is a collection of 41 postings of pictures, some of which relate to the family of James and Lucy Miller who emigrated to Canada in 1884 and their descendants.

One picture is of a watercolour painting of “Donnington House”, painted by Lucy Miller, the family home they left behind in Shropshire, where James had been a farmer. A recent ‘Comment’ was posted by ‘Anonymous’, who owns the original picture, passed to her after her father died. She has contacted me, is a grand-daughter of James and Lucy Miller, and is mystified as to how a copy of the painting came to be posted by ‘Barista’.

Who is ‘Barista’? And what is her connection with the house in Napanee shown in one of the photographs (captioned “Napanee 1957″)? Might the young girl on the horse have been a visitor who, perhaps returned a year later (“Nalanee 1958″) with her brothers and sisters? Do you recognise the house in Napanee in the photograph from 1957? Or the elderly gentleman with a steadying hand on the horse? Is there a connection between this house and the Miller or Fryer families of the weblog?

I’ve made a copy of this request which I have posted on our family weblog, which you would be very welcome to visit.(http://www.perrinfamily.co.uk/) I’d be delighted and grateful for any help.

Please post a reply on this Forum or email me directly at norman.perrin@googlemail.com Thank you for reading this posting. Norman Perrin. Sheffield. Yorkshire. England.

Tidying the desk for Christmas, I came upon a folder of miscellaneous documents. One of the these was a record of the Monumental Inscription on a headstone in the graveyard of Christchurch, West Bromwich, Staffordshire. Listed are Sarah (died 1836 aged 45), wife of William Cooksey, their son, William Mallin (died 1845 aged 30) and a daughter, Marie Louisa (died 1850 aged 35).

Sarah’s maiden name was Mallin, hence son William’s second given name. I have often wondered at the relationship between William’s first wife, Sarah Mallin, and his second wife, Hannah Mallin. I have researched, so far without success.

Coming upon the MI set me thinking again about William’s first wife and family. I knew that in 1841, by which time William had married Hannah and had a 2 year-old child, that the three children from his first marriage were not living with them. Where were they?  Living together, is the answer, in Great Bridge, West Bromwich, with two other men (whose occupations are too faint to read) and a female servant. 

The census entry produced a surprise: a fourth Cooksey, a Sarah, aged 20 – born apparently about 1820.

I have now added William and Sarah’s children to the family tree.

Just now added Hannah Mallin’s brother William to the family. Had to do it by creating an “Unknown Mallin” father for Hannah and then entering William as his son; which is a rather cumbersome way about it, though I could see no other way of adding William, otherwise. I also added two marriages for William – to Susannah Smith in 1829 and to Miriam Briscoe in 1833. I’m taking a chance on these two – deductions from marriage records, rather than proven. From the same source, there is some suggestion of other brothers and sisters – but no clear evidence. Nor of parents. Nor of Hannah’s christening.

I’ve been spending a little time with my Great-Great-Great Grandma Hannah Mallin. Although when she married at All Saints, West Bromwich in Staffordshire, she was said to be ‘of this parish’, I have as yet found no trace of her birth in the All Saints baptisms on the IGI. I should no doubt get a full transcript of the register. 

Between the IGI, the online National Burial Index and online copies of marriage registers, I’ve compiled much information but no more light.  Hannah’s parents and possible siblings, apart from brother William (1796-1873) of whom I have previous record, remain elusive. For now.

That’s *my* 7x-Great Grandparents. I’ll have to leave you to work out your number of Greats for yourself. And if you think of it, 7x-Greats is TEN generations!

In the Family History, you will see that we can confirm the family record to 1770, the marriage of William Perrin and Sarah Howse. But that with a bit of luck, we can be reasonably confident of the links back to 4 baptism at Middleton Stoney, Oxfordshire, beginning in 1698, to a John Perrin and Mary.

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Dad has once again been busy foraging away in a bid to expand our family history. Recent efforts have focused attentions on his maternal ancestors resulting in this account of the connection to Minnie Mahoney, his 2x Great Grandmother:

My maternal grandmother was Nellie Plant. Her mother, my great-grandmother, was Ellen Frost. Ellen Frost married George William Plant … She was 21 , a “spinster” … Her father was John Frost and one of the witnesses was William Frost, probably her brother.

As that was all that I then knew of great-grandmother Ellen Frost, I turned my attention to her mother, my great-great-grandmother “Miss Mahoney” …

Read the full account: One Thirty-Secondth Irish

For those of you who haven’t yet had the call from Karen yet, I am happy to pass on her proud news: an excellent performance in the Birmingham Sprint Triathlon meant qualification for the ITU Triathlon World Championships 2008 in Vancover next year.

I’m sure you will all join me in congratulating her on this tremendous achievement.

Well done Karen. Now the fundraising begins!

Tom’s been a busy man in recent times, living life at the forefront of the semantic web.

His recent email, and the podcast, sheds some light into where his forays in this arena have taken him.

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August 2003 saw three generations of the Perrin Male (and their better halves) brought together in one place – The Samling in Cumbria – following my wedding.

Less than 3 years on, another Perrin Family moment saw 4 generations of the Perrin Male together at the regular family haunt, the Tiverton Hotel.

Quite an occasion, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Okay, so in the true sense of the word, this is a blog. In reality, I am merely attempting to use the functionality provided by this blogging tool as a kind of wrapper around several disconnected collections of information that help identify the Perrin family now and way back then.

However, it would seem that the wonderful new world of the internet (or should I say Web 2.0) has no boundaries and even Dad (or Norman to those in the know) is getting in on the act. For those of you who know him, you wont be surprised to hear that he’s got lots (of very interesting things) to say! Why not take a read?

Do you know of any blogging Perrin’s out there? Let me know and I can add it to the blogroll.