Ireland XO
Back to Message Board

John J. Berry born about 1850s

Cork

John J. Berry was my great Grandfather. His daughter never met him. We only know the little bit of info that I am posting below.

John Berry was born in Ireland and had a family there before coming to America. When he married "Bessie" Pike he was in his 40's or early 50's with grown children in Ireland. He was a mason by trade, but was encouraged by Bessie to go to Newfoundland to get a job in a mine. This was after Genevieve was born. There was an explosion in the mine and Johns body was never found.

The story from my grandmother Genevieve was that her father was from "County Cork". My great-Grandmother was Christine (Bessie) Pike born in 1872. They must have been married in 1898 or 1899 as my Grandmother was born in November 1899.

Thanks for helping with my "needle in a haystack"!

Sue J

IrelandXO member

1 reply

Sue:

Welcome to Ireland Reaching Out!

You are correct, it will be very difficult to determine where John came from in Ireland. You really need to know his parents names in order to ensure you have the correct record. Also, a good number of churches do not have records back to around 1850. I looked at one data base of baptismal records and there were 32 John Berry baptismal records between 1845-1855. He may well have been from Cork but  many emigrants left from Cork even though they were from a different county but in the States or their new country the family thought their father or mother was from Cork. Not saying that is what happened with your ancestor.

You may want to think about autosomal DNA testing. You may have matches with someone who also has Berry connections and has  lot more on the origins of the Berry family in Ireland.

Roger McDonnell

Castlemore RoscommonIrelandXO Volunteer

Reply

Reply
One image file up to 2 MB.