Introduction

I was christened John Balfry Davies in the town of Zomba in what was then Nyasaland, East Africa. My father was a Colonial Civil Servant and my mother was a Balfry. She was the youngest of the six children of Charles O'Mealy Balfry, company secretary of Burtons Brewery. He died young leaving the family in dire straights. Charles' father was William Balfry, a mysterious person who had been born near Limerick, Ireland, was said to have relinquished Catholicism and fled to England where he worked as an engineer on the railways, as a surveyor, and as a schoolmaster in Yorkshire. He died of drowning in Northamptonshire. At some time William and family lived near York where Charles and his brother Alfred were choristers at York Cathedral. (WIliam's story is told in a separate booklet to be found under documents/"William Balfry")

That was about the sum of my knowledge of the family when I started researching their origins about 30 years ago. I was greatly helped by an account of her early life written by my mother (see document "Olive's story" ), and details of extensive searches made by my second cousin Graham Balfry, who continued his grandfather Jack's (JCK Balfry) investigations and who like me had spent hours going through the records at Somerset House (as it was then) and churning through miles of microfilm at his local library. Graham made all of his data including his grandfather's notes available to my mother. This was an was an enormous help for which I am most grateful.

Then in 2002 I made contact with Michael Balfré who I discovered had compiled a massive tree of Balfrys including many in North America. Sadly Mike died in 2012, but he passed on his tree and many of his notes to me at the end. This web site is dedicated to Mike in the hope that his efforts will not be forgotten. Eventually I hope to include Mike's tree of over 15 pages on this site. 

If you are a Balfry or have an interest in the Balfrys, please comment or make additions. The information is set out as a blog to enable you to do just that. In its present state the site is a work in progress, so please keep coming back - you never know what might have been added since you last looked! If you are related to a Balfry and belong to one of the Canadian or Californian, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Kansas or other American branches, I would be particularly happy to hear from you.

John Balfry Davies

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