361. Perkins

Outline

1. Edmund Perkins (d. 1693) m. Susan (Hudson) Howlet (1645–aft. 1703); Boston, Mass.
2. Edmund Perkins (1683–1761) m. (1) 1709 Mary Farris (ca. 1688–1721); Boston, Mass.
3. William Perkins (1716–bef. 1760) m. 1741 Elizabeth Palfrey (1719–1775); Boston, Mass.
4. Elizabeth Perkins (1746–1831) m. 1786 Capt. John Matchett (1714–1793); Boston, Mass.

Full essay

To my knowledge, only one genealogy of the family of Edmund Perkins of Boston has been produced: [Augustus Thorndike Perkins,] A Private Proof Printed in Order to Preserve Certain Matters Connected with the Boston Branch of the Perkins Family: Intended Only as an Indication of the Best Points of Future Investigation (Boston: T. R. Marvin & Son, Printers, 1890). It begins with an 11-generation English pedigree, for which H. G. Somerby is credited. This presumably accounts for the compiler’s insistence on connecting the immigrant ancestor to another of the same surname who settled in Essex County, Massachusetts, even though the leading authority on that family shows no such link: Walter Goodwin Davis, The Ancestry of Dudley Wildes (1759–1820) of Topsfield, Massachusetts (Portland, Me.: Anthoensen Press, 1959), partially reprinted in Massachusetts and Maine Families in the Ancestry of Walter Goodwin Davis (1885–1966): A Reprinting, in Alphabetical Order by Surname, of the Sixteen Multi-Ancestor Compendia (Plus Thomas Haley of Winter Harbor and His Descendants) Compiled by Maine’s Foremost Genealogist, 3 vols. (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996), 3:165-82. Even the compiler’s presentation of the American generations is far from complete. He concentrates on his own lineage, includes little information on ancestors’ collateral kin, and expresses most dates in years only. In the face of such shortcomings in the literature, I have had to research the family largely on my own. Like Perkins, I pursue only one child in each family, but I also attempt to provide basic chronological information on all of my ancestors’ other children and their spouses.

• Perkins.pdf

Related surnames

1445. Farris · 2889. Hudson · 45. Matchett · 723. Palfrey