Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Surname Saturday - Percival

I used to think that Percival was a rather rare name, until I started researching it. Growing up in the Detroit area, there were other Percivals, but we didn't have any connection to them. This, of course, was before the internet and online phonebooks, Ancestry, etc.

Our Percival line, tracing back from me, born in Detroit to my father in Kansas City, Missouri all the way back to my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, James Percival, the earliest of that line that we can trace. We don't even know for sure where he was born. The first mention of James Percival was in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay Colony records in 1670 where he is ordered to pay a fine of 5 pounds and to return the boat he stole in Virginia. A few years later, he was given permission to take up lands in Sacconessett (Falmouth, Massachusetts) and that is where he spent the remainder of his years. Part of the family remained in Massachusetts and there are many of his line that still live there, which is mind-boggling to me. My line through James Percival's oldest son, John, must have had gypsy blood because they settled in Connecticut and his descendants moved through New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, and California.

Copyright 2010, ACK for Gene Notes

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