The other half of every generation
A surname follows one thread. Grandpa has sixteen great-great-grandparents, and only one of them was born a Perin.
Follow only the surname and you follow one great-great-grandparent out of sixteen. The other fifteen are here: the Utters, Allisons and Adamses on Arthur’s side, the Marshes, Skinners, Bowens and Swordens on Esther’s.
Almost everything in this chapter comes from Grandpa’s family chart. It has not all been checked against records yet, and where another source disagrees, that is said. Family chart
| Grandparent | Their parents | Their grandparents |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Rice Perin 1860–1926 | Ezra Rice Perin, 1818–1902 | John Perin, 1774–1866 Rachel Rice, 1782–1866 |
| Phoebe Jane Utter, 1820–1879 | Zimri Utter, 1794–1879 Susan Winchel, 1798–1864 | |
| Geraldine Allison 1866–1962 | James Dowthard Allison, 1826–1890 | Elisha Allison, 1796–1874 Sarah Dawson Spencer, 1791–1875 |
| Catherine Vawter Adams, 1830–1915 | William Barnes Adams, 1800–1872 Martha “Patsy” Larimore, 1798–1875 | |
| Frank Rufus Marsh 1871–1956 | Rufus Jay Marsh, 1846–1908 | Madison James Marsh, 1824–1896 Laura Jane West, 1826–1890 |
| Harriette “Hattie” A. Skinner, 1842–1926 | Norman H. Skinner Sr., 1816–1880 Eleanor “Ellen” Cossey, 1819–1857 | |
| Cora May Bowen 1879–1953 | John Powell Bowen, 1855–1926 | John Allen Bowen, 1822–1864 Lavina Merchant, 1826–1906 |
| Minerva Sworden, 1860–1941 | Zenas William Sworden, 1806–1876 Eliza Naugle, 1821–1907 |
The Utters
Phoebe Jane Utter married Ezra Perin in 1839 and was the mother of his ten children. Her father, on the chart, was Zimri Utter, and the name is distinctive enough to make a connection worth noticing: Ezra and Phoebe’s first son was John Zimri Perin, the boy who shared his father’s 1858 patent. Naming a first son for his mother’s father was common practice, and it fits here. Family chart
The Allisons and the Adamses
Geraldine Allison’s parents were James Dowthard Allison and Catherine Vawter Adams. Geraldine’s memoir fills in her brothers and sisters: Celia, Belle, Martha, Seneca, Frank, Clement, Alden, and the twins Grace and Gertrude. Seen in records
Somebody else was researching Catherine thirty years ago. In the summer 1994 newsletter of the Vawter family association, another researcher asked whether Catherine Vawter Adams, daughter of William Barnes Adams and Martha “Larriamore,” had Vawter ancestors. Her middle name suggests she might. Nobody has yet shown that she did, and the newsletter does not record an answer. Seen in records
The Marshes and the Skinners
Esther’s father, Frank Rufus Marsh, is confirmed by Grandpa. Esther was born at Valley City, North Dakota, in 1902. Beyond Frank the line is from the chart: his parents Rufus Jay Marsh and Harriette “Hattie” Skinner, and their parents Madison James Marsh and Laura Jane West, and Norman Skinner and Eleanor “Ellen” Cossey. Family chart
One conflict to keep in view: another online tree gives Rufus Jay Marsh a different mother than Laura Jane West. Until a record decides it, both stay possible.
The Bowens and the Swordens
Esther’s mother was Cora May Bowen, daughter of John Powell Bowen and Minerva Sworden. Minerva’s mother is the woman on this side of the family we know most about, because her obituary survives.
Eliza Naugle was born in 1821 and came from Pennsylvania to Ohio. She married first Hazael Murray, was left a widow with four children, and then married Zenas Sworden. The obituary names her daughter as “Minerva Bowen of Libby, Montana,” which is exactly the woman on Grandpa’s chart. It also names Minerva’s brother and sister, the twins Americus and America, and her Murray half-brothers and sisters. Eliza died in 1907. Seen in records
The obituary gives Zenas’s death as 1871; the chart says 1876. The newspaper it came from has not been identified, so the original clipping is still to find.
Esther Minerva Marsh carried her grandmother’s name. Minerva Sworden Bowen died in 1941, when Esther was in her late thirties.
The women of the Perrin line
Going back up the surname line, the wives are often the least-recorded people in it. What is known:
- Ann, wife of the first John, buried at Rehoboth in 1688. Her maiden name is unknown; Glover guessed she was one of several women named Ann on the 1635 passenger list, and it was only a guess. Grandpa’s database, which draws on FamilySearch, calls her Anna Mary Hurbert; FamilySearch also spells her Anna Hulbert, born in 1616 at Gravesend, Kent. Family chart
- Mary, wife of the second John. Later books give her competing maiden names, so none is used here. Grandpa’s database gives her as Mary Polley, born at Roxbury in 1650, and that would fit: the second John died at Roxbury, and their son Noah settled there. The name is older than the database: in the Boston Public Library’s copy of Glover’s book, the copy the Internet Archive scanned, an unknown reader has written “Polley” after her name in ink, and “b. 2 June 1650” and “Roxbury” beside it. A note in a margin is not a record, but it says someone believed this long before FamilySearch. Family chart
- Sarah, wife of the third John, widowed in 1694 with a son just over two. In the same library copy of Glover, the same kind of hand has written a surname after hers that looks like “Brewer,” and Grandpa’s database, from FamilySearch, calls her Sarah Brewer too. It is a lead, not a finding.
- Rachel Ide, 1695–1780, and Rachel Ide, 1730–1808, the latter a daughter of Daniel Ide. Two different women.
- Martha Nash, born 1749, Lemuel’s first wife, daughter of Simeon and Martha Nash according to the 1880 Clermont County history.
- Rachel Rice, 1782–1866, Ezra’s mother, whose family has a chapter of its own.