Sub-projects

Some members of the Perry DNA project have set up sub-projects in order to analyse the results of their particular groups more carefully. Current projects are listed below.

Seven Perry Brothers of North Carolina

The Seven Brothers sub-project, Family Group 9, is comprised of individuals who appear to be directly or collaterally related to the legendary “7 Perry Brothers” of Granville/Bute/Franklin County, North Carolina, circa 1746-47 (Jeremiah, John, Joshua, Nathaniel, William, Francis, Burwell). Sons and grandsons of the “7 Brothers” are known to have migrated south and west out of North Carolina thereby leaving descendants throughout the United States.

Currently, Family Group 9 has several Perry men with convincing documentation linking them to the “7 Brothers” – William (54034) (N84033), Burwell (180938), and Francis (218165) (108447). The DNA sample for Burwell came from the owner of Cascine – the Perry Plantation near Louisburg, NC which dates from the late 18th century.

This group’s goals are:

• Locating more Perry descendants who possess proven paper-trails to the “7 Brothers” and encourage them to test.
• Identifying more Perry Patriarchs from early North Carolina and Virginia who were related directly or collaterally to the “7 Brothers”.
• Determining whether DNA testing supports the documentary evidence (somewhat fragmentary and partially circumstantial) that the “7 Brothers” were indeed brothers.
• Establishing a Y-DNA haplotype for the “7 Brothers” so that Group 9 individuals who are still searching for the origins of their Perry family may focus their research in the right area and perhaps make some new discoveries.

John Perry, born ca 1650 of Nansemond County, Virginia

Research began with a line of Lancaster and Kershaw Counties, South Carolina Perrys in the 1960s. In the mid 1970s, I discovered the documentary link to John Perry, ca 1690-1760, who left Nansemond for North Carolina in the 1720s. This discovery placed the line in a geography with a large network of interconnected Perry families in the Bertie, Perquimans and Pasquotank counties area, but it was DNA technology that proved their genetic link to John Perry born ca 1650 of Nansemond County, Virginia. Goals of our subgroup’s DNA research include:

• Unravelling the relationship between the various ‘sons’ of John Perry of Nansemond 1690-1760 who migrated to several different counties in northeastern North Carolina
• Connecting to the lines of the many descendants of these sons who migrated to South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and points south and southwest, and possibly to Ohio.
• Discovering living descendants of the earliest Virginia, British, and/or Irish family members of the John Perry of Nansemond County line with the object of repositioning this family in its international setting

Persons who believe their DNA line may belong with this research subgroup please contact Rebecca Starr. Sponsorship may be available, on submission of a documented pedigree. Contributions to support the research goals of this subproject are very welcome.

Irish Perry DNA

There are several different Perry families in Ireland who have no genetic connection to one another. Each of these descends from a different settler ancestor, many of whom settled in Ireland in the 17th century. We are trying to find representatives from each separate Irish Perry family to come forward for DNA testing. So far we have testers from the following groups:

• Woodrooff, Tipperary and Cork (descended from the Devon and London Perrys)
• The Pery family of Limerick
• The Kilboy, Tipperary Perrys
• The Cahir, Tipperary Perrys
• The ‘violin’ Perrys from Laois, Kilkenny and Dublin
• The Quaker Perrys from County Laois
• A Perry family from Armagh, Northern Ireland
• Tha family of Swift Perry of Perrymount, Northern Ireland
• The Seskinore Perrys from County Tyrone

We are currently looking for testers from the following families:

• The Perry family of Formerla, County Clare
• The Perry family of Clonmoher, County Clare
• The Perry family of Obelisk Park, County Dublin
• The Perry family of Cork and Antigua
• More descendants of the families already tested

Please contact Vicki Perry if you are a descendant of any of these, or another Irish Perry family and would like to join the DNA test. In certain circumstances sponsorship may be available, upon submission of a pedigree with sources. The Irish Perry Genealogy website can be found here.