ELIZABETH (PARRY) PARRY
Elizabeth Parry was born on 1 January 1809, at Cross Keys, New Market, Flintshire, Wales,
the seventh child of Edward Parry and Mary Foulks
Parry. There were thirteen children in
the family: Mary (born in 1796 and died in 1802), Edward (1798), John (1800),
Thomas (1802), Mary (1804), Richard (1806), Francis (1810), Henry (1812),
Bernard (1815), Ann (1818), Robert (1821), and Joseph (1825).
Elizabeth
married John Parry on 7 September 1834,
at Newmarket. John and Elizabeth and their family were
taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Elizabeth was baptized a member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 25 January 1841.
She and John became the parents of six children (Mary, Jane,
Winifred, John, Edward and Elizabeth Louise).
The family left their home in Wales
and emigrated to Utah
in 1856. Mary, the oldest daughter, had
already come to Utah a few years
earlier and Jane, the second daughter, died when about four years old. The four younger children came with their parents. After journeying on the ship, 'Curling' to Boston,
and traveling by train to Iowa,
they joined the Edward Bunker Handcart Company.
They left Iowa in June
1856 and arrived in Salt Lake City
on 2 October 1856. Their daughter, Mary, who had married Elias Morris was there to meet them.
Mary and Elias lived in Cedar
City and so the Parry family went
there to make their home. Elizabeth
died on 18 October 1869,
at Cedar City,
Iron, Utah.
An interesting note: Elizabeth's
uncle, John Parry, (brother of her father, Edward) was the first director of
the Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City. The parents of Uncle John (born 10 February 1789) and Father Edward
(born 22 March 1769) are
Bernard Parry and Elizabeth Saunders.
Uncle John Parry came to Utah
in 1849 and became the leader of the Choir in the Bowery. He and the choir continued to serve in that
capacity after the old Tabernacle was completed in 1852 (on the present site of
the Assembly Hall on Temple Square
in Salt Lake City). In 1854 Uncle John was called on a mission to
Great Britain
which terminated his service as director of the choir.
