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« on: Tuesday 09 May 17 16:00 BST (UK) »
Dear AmonDG,
Thank you for replying and offering help with my Harrisons who may go back to the Harrisons of Caister, Norfolk County.
If you were to send me a private message, PM, with your email address, I could send you a Harrison family tree for Caister, Norfolk County, that I have just made. It is a bit of a mess as it combines different sources, some of them church records (good) and some 19th century chat (not good). It is based on a family tree sent to the LDS church lib ray in Utah, U.S., researched in the 1880s using church baptismal and marriage records.
I am interested in someone born about the 1620s, name not known, but likely John Harrison who was born in Norfolk County and died in Ireland. All of "John's" descendants for a while were--not surprisingly--farmers. In Ireland in the 1700s and 1800s they had about 30 to 40 acres and rented. In Ireland only one son inherited and the other children "traveled," meaning them emigrated. There are over 84 farms, not only in Ulster, but also in Canada, the U.S. (New York and Virginia), and (Mangapai) New Zealand. All but two were cattle farms or dairy farms. (Each also had hens and pigs for the family at least.) Two other farmers grew cranberries and had a fox hunt. In the South of the U.S. they were not farms but large plantations. In contrast to other Harrison families, from whom we have had to distinguish ourselves in studying our tree, our Harrisons were literate, partly owing to the fact they were Presbyterian (starting in Ireland about 1685-1703). In England we could have been anything, but probably Protestant in the 1500s and 1600s, as all descendants are.
If ever I exchanged photos with a Harrison male of this family (mine), I would know instantly whether or not he was a relative by looking at his forehead. Though baldness is handed down through the mother, that hairline is undoubtedly a male trait as even our 8th and 11th cousins named Harrison have it.
Again thank you for your help in finding anyone who has ever studied this Harrison family tree. We are more interested--in this stage--in confirming where we are from and which big family we are from than in names and dates. We are simply seeking contact with the Harrison family of Caister or Great Plumstead, the one studied in the 1880s by a Hargrave-Harrison who looked at church records (including looking at Chedgrave, where a Harrison was a church clerk). Is no one currently researching the Caister Harrisons of Norfolk County? Has the family died out there? Thank you for your attention to our family.
Polly LYNN