Persse Allisé Martha Fox

[JillWill]

Has anyone come across the name Persse as a first name?
A colleague is researching a Persse Fox who says she was born in South East Galway and sometimes Loughrea. In the English 1901 census she is in Wiltshire as a nurse matron in a cottage hospital aged 28, which would suggest a year of birth about 1873, however no one of that name shows up in the birth registers on irishgenealogy.ie or on the familysearch indexes. By the 1911 census she appears as the wife of Harry Woodyatt Jenkins in Hampshire with twin sons born in 1902 and details suggesting a marriage in 1902. A number of trees on Ancestry suggest this marriage took place in Ireland but no Harry Jenkins to Fox marriage shows on the irishgenealogy site for the period 1900-1910. Initial searches in England do not produce an obvious marriage either.
Her son Erle Harry Woodyatt on arrival in Quebec in 1924 claims he was born in Loughrea, but later settled in the US admits he was born in Fordingbridge in Hampshire. This is confirmed by local records in Hampshire. So there definitely would seem to be a family connection to the Loughrea area.

By the 1939 Register Persse W Jenkins was now indicating that she was born on 18th June 1876. She died in Feb 1946 in Southhampton and her will shows her other son Godfrey Noel Woodyatt Jenkins as her executor.
So any hints on where to find information leading to the birth / parents of Persse Allisé Martha Fox would be useful.

[mary casteleyn]

Jill
The use of a surname as a Christian name is often used in Protestant families, indicating a connection to that family, usually a birth or other family connection such as a marriage somewhere or inheritance. The family of Persse in Galway was powerful and is well known (such as Lady Gregory who was born a Persse) and would have been an important connection to promote. There is a new book out called “The Persse Family of county Galway 1554-1964” by Gerry Kearney. 2016 and 414 pages so substantial. Unfortunately I don’t have this book myself.

[JillWill]

Thanks Mary.  Whilst I was aware of the Protestant naming habit, I had not come across any others with Persse as a first name.  A look now at the 1901 and 1911 census show less than 10 people in the country with Persse as a first name and these are all male.  There are only two births with the first name Persse on irishgenealogy.ie in the period 1864-1915,  both entries relate to males also.

I was not aware of that book on the Persse family and will suggest to my colleague that he gets hold of it through interlibrary loan.

[Author]

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