I was pleased to receive an email message this morning from Leslie Kenny,
Webmaster/Senior Editor of StudyWeb, one of the Internet's premier sites
for educational resources for students and teachers. She informed me our
Tazewell
County Historical Society - 1996 Information site on this homepage has
been selected by its researchers as a featured site in StudyWeb as one of
the best educational resources on the Web.Since 1996, StudyWeb expert researchers have scoured the Internet to select only the finest sites to be included in StudyWeb's listing of educational links. Each site includes a detailed review describing its editorial and visual merits.
Inclusion in StudyWeb will increase our exposure and attract new visitors to this, the Peery Family History Home Page. Their reviews have been featured on Webcrawler Select, The Lycos Top 5%, Education World and many others. StudyWeb updates are provided to media and educational resources around the world.
The invitation to display the prestigious StudyWeb Excellence Award icon at the location cited has been accepted. It links to the StudyWeb homepage.
[Mon, Jun 22, 1998 -- PDP]
Last Saturday, I visited the main LDS Family History Library in downtown Salt Lake City, located on West Temple, across the street from Temple Square. I had received a letter from Reg D. Mann (RDM) of Ipswich, Suffolk, England, dated May 17, 1998. He had found my name as a submitter to the LDS "Ancestral File" genealogical database concerning Joseph S. Peery (JSP). Ancestral File can be accessed at the library system computers in SLC, and is shipped via CD-ROM sets to LDS Family History Centers located throughout the world. He had access to the CD-ROMs. (Parenthetically, it has been rumored for some time that work is being done to place Ancestral File online for access from your PC. Don't hold your breath. These things take time.)
His query was in regard to Henry Johnson Pockson (HJP), Mr. Mann's maternal great-grandfather. HJP was married at St. George's Hanover Square, in London, 25 May 1829 to Mary Ann Martin, to whom JSP is related. JSP's name appeared as a relative who submitted an entry to the International Genealogical Index (IGI). After Mary's death, Henry married Eliza Brown on 10 Apr 1853 at St. Johns Lambeth. There were nine children from the two marriages.
According to RDM's letter, the Pockson Family at large has grown to over five-hundred names. His own research has led him to William Pockson (c 1770-1842), who may have been HJP's grandfather.
The connection to the Peery name is through Mary Ann Martin. While I searched the Ancestral File database for Pockson, I found none listed. That was surprising because of the humongous size of the database. This piqued my curiosity, so I planned on looking for any Pockson family history books in the extensive collection at the FHL. I learned, however, that all of the books had been transferred to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (formerly the Hotel Utah), located at South Temple and Main Street across the street and east of Temple Square. A large selection of books and other publications held in archives located in the basement of the FHL are in the process of being moved to the space opened up at the FHL's main floor research room.
I went to the Memorial Building to find the Family History books and located them at the west end of the fourth floor, the computer room. All of this information is available to the public free of charge. On the east end of the fourth floor are located archived Family Group Records that for years were unavailable to the public. These are the originals, all of which have been backed up on modern storage and retrieval media. If your ever in Salt Lake City, be sure to visit the fourth floor to check it out. You could be spending much valuable research time there. Imagine, if you will, row after row of document holders (like the old hard cover accounting record books, with removable pages) containing the hard copy Family Group sheet documents. This is a gold mine of research information. Dozens of Peery sheets are included in one of the document holders.
I checked for Pockson books in the stacks on the west end of the fourth floor where the Family History books are now located. I found none. In contrast, however, there were eighty Martin books, a significant collection for any family.
While I have made an effort to assist Reg D. Mann with his query, it has been to no avail through the sources mentioned. I will be writing him to let him know of these developments. That is not to say there may not be something in the FHL containing Pockson references, it is just that I found none directly for the name.
[Mon, June 8, 1998 -- PDP]
With the stock market booming far longer than expected, a phenomenon that has attracted significant investor attention, including mine, my attention has been diverted from this Home Page for awhile. Together with daily developments in Washington, D.C., another phenomenon that has attracted much media attention, and mine, I have slowed down entries here.
A third phenomenon that has drawn my attention, that overlaps with the first two, is the current economic decline in Southeast Asia, in recent years a rapid growth region. So much has the latter drawn my attention, that I am auditing an advanced class, Economics 543, "Asian Economic History and Development," taught at night by Professor Steve E. Reynolds at the University of Utah. Reynolds has lived in Indonesia. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the area. I have learned a great deal from his classes. The subject is pertinent today. It all relates to what we are hearing and reading about in Southeast Asia, the current hot topic being that of India and Pakistan both setting off underground nuclear tests.
This follows the riots in Indonesia during the past two weeks and the resultant change in government leadership after 32 years of dictatorship under Suharto, who resigned May 21, 1998. The world's fourth most populous nation. The average annual income in Indonesia is $1,000. In Jakarta, the major city, the annual average is $3,000. Nepotism has been rampant, which this past week has ended, at least for the Suharto family. The people have risen. It has shades of the Philippine uprisings that overthrew Marcos, the husband of the woman with the 2,000 pairs of shoes. All this while the majority of the Filippino people were starving.
In the wings is the IMF (International Monetary Fund), which our Congress has refused to bank the billions committed by the IMF to bail out Southeast Asian countries, particularly Indonesia and its 18,000 islands, with nearly 500 language groups and tribes with different aspirations. Nevertheless, the IMF made public last month of the billions it would be providing Indonesia, only to be followed by its pulling this back after the riots started. Indonesia now has new leadership. The IMF may be divving up again soon. It is written (somewhere) "Hope Is Eternal."
The focus of Professor Reynold's class is on the members of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the East Asian NICs. The five founding members of ASEAN were Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Philippines. Added later were Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar (1997), and Burma (1997). Cambodia's entry has been pending. There is some objection to it, particularly from its close neighbors.
My source for the Asian information is an essay by Kenichi Ohmae published in "Asiaweek," December 1997 issue. He is an internationally recognized author, speaker and management consultant. For 23 years, Dr. Ohmae was a partner in McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm based in New York. While he is optimistic about the future of Asia, he has not forgotten "the region has been plagued by the three P's -- Poverty, Pollution and Population. The inequality in Asia is staggering." Numbers bear him out. Dr. Ohmae says "the average monthly wage in Japan for a blue collar worker is about $3,500. In Korea, it is $1,500; in Malaysia, $500; in the Philippines, $150; in Vietnam, about $40 to $50 (at local companies); in Myanmar, $20." He summarizes by saying "With the average monthly wages ranging from $20 to $3,500, the difference between the poorest and wealthiest regions is 175 times."
These subjects may be expected to stay on the front pages for a further interval. Meantime, Family History remains an interest, aside from the current history in the making. I doubt there are many indigenous Peerys in Southeast Asia. As for the securities markets, Washington happenings and Southeast Asia uprisings, I'm tracking developments every day.
[Mon, June 1, 1998 -- PDP]
Current membership in Peery Cousins Online is 145, representing 34 states and 3 foreign countries. There are 74 (51.0%) male and 71 (49.0%) female members. Sixteen states not represented are AK, CT, DE, HI, LA, MA, ME, MS, MT, NV, NH, ND, RI, SC, VT and WI.
New members largely come from visitors to this Web site. The Tazewell County, Virginia section attracts interest. It is a base point for eighteenth century (late 1700s) Peerys. It may be that a section for Augusta County, Virginia, should be added to this Web site. It is where the earliest immigrant Peery settlers in Virginia (1740-42) were known to have had land. Emigration from there to other states, including the new "West" of Southwest Virginia, took place.
On Nov 4, 1997, the Guest Book was opened on this Web site. To date, 52 messages have been written. I am pleased with the interest shown and the willingness to share information. To respond to a message of interest, just click on the author's highlighted name.
[Mon, June 1, 1998 -- PDP]