Welcome
This web site is my attempt to present a wide variety of information about the Perrin family through the last four hundred years. Included with proper genealogy are discussions of related families and general speculation about the times in which my ancestors lived.
Much of the information on these web pages is expressed more succinctly in book form, now in its Fifth Edition as of July, 2017. Its large (200Mb) pdf file may be found here; a smaller file version is also available with its illustrations in lower resolution. Book writing is necessarily more formal; space is at a premium. Everything contained in the book is also here; the 19 chapters of the book plus appendices parallel the narrative section of this web site. These web pages are not only more verbose but also contain more data; any discoveries since 2017 will only be in the web page narrative. The book also does not contain any photographs of people, and does not contain the final chapter in the web narrative concerning Alberta Perrin Day.
That said, these web pages, updated as of August 2022, do not disagree in substance with the fifth edition of the book. There are previous print editions which I believe have inaccurate information in them, and I encourage folks to depend on the pdf as available at this web site.
Navigation
If you simply want to read through this work, go to narrative and follow the pages in order. Many pages will link to supplemental materials specific to the subject at hand. Maps are an important part of the narrative and are indexed separately in the maps section. The database section contains pedigree information, both as entries pertaining to individuals, or else as family trees. It is not updated very often, however.
The section labeled thoughts will get you to some blog entries I wrote while doing my initial Perrin family research. This part is not intended to be objective nor sober. I advise looking at these pages only if you wish to get to know me better. There is an active debate whether that be a safe proposition :)
Going through the narrative will of course mean moving from page to page: buttons for this will be found at the bottom of each page (like most web pages). I have tried to do a lot of cross-referencing between pages through text links.
If you get lost, feel free to use the pull down menus at the top of each web page, or go back to the narrative home page. Or you can use the site map.
Tools
I have provided a lot of original source material as quotations within the text; these are typically surrounded by a blue background. Sometimes the particularly long and/or boring portions are switched off. Click on the eyeglasses icon
at the top-right of the selection; this will toggle open the rest of the quotation.
I have received a couple of queries from people who, when brought to one of my web pages by a search engine such as Google, they were unable to find the text on which they searched. Each time this was due to the fact that the search term was hidden in one of the extended quotes. If this happens to you, click the button at the top of the web page which says
and everything will be visible to you and your web browser.
References are in the body of the text, and are available whenever you see a button showing a pair of brackets . Clicking the button will show the reference.
If a map or photo in the narrative has an expanded view, you will see a wikipedia-style magnification icon following the caption
Clicking on it will then open another window for a magnified view.
Some of the custom maps come in layers, so for example you can look at the topography based on color (default) or the underlying topographic map. To switch layers, download or view the file in Adobe Reader, not your browser. Historically, for some of the maps this has not worked well when using an iPod or iPad, possibly due to poor rendering of big jpg files by mobile Safari.
Technical
I have tested these pages with Safari, Chrome and Firefox. Older versions of Internet Explorer may not display well, and the buttons described below may not work. The buttons described above may also not work with mobile devices.
In order to benefit from all the features of these pages I recommend
- Keeping the width of this window at 960 pixels or more (this is the default for iPad, iPod Touch)
- Enabling Javascript
- Enabling pop-up windows.
If the print seems too small, I advise using your browser to magnify the images.
About the Title
The signature above comes from Edward Perrin, in 1685, when he signed as a witness an indenture contract. The original is in the Pennsylvania Historical Society.
Contact
I am interested in keeping this site as accurate as possible. While I believe the easily found information about the Perrin family has already been discovered, I continue to run into new facts, and occasionally errors. I welcome hearing from you if you have material relevant for this work, or a desire for further data. Write me at rpday@perrinhistory.net.