Kirby family

My Kirby ancestors date back only to around 1745 where my trail has gone cold. Daniel Kirby first appears in the traced records around 1766 with his marriage to Amy Clarke in the City of London. Fortunately the marriage record shows his home parish and this enabled the link to the children of Daniel and Amy being born in Ruislip from around that time. Richard Kirby, the eldest, being baptised in August. One has to wonder whether the marriage was a rush affair as clearly Amy was already at least 4 months pregnant at the time in April.

I descend from William the 8th child of eleven that Daniel and Amy went on to have. The Kirby's seem to have links with the Rickmansworth area and Hertfordshire but how Daniel came to be in the City of London in the time around 1866 is an intriguing question. Perhaps it will be answered one day.

The various generations have all been particularly successful and the traced descendents currently exceed 500 persons. Professions seem to have varied from brick makers to grocers but as time progressed some have reached beyond their lowly origins. A recent contact informs me that one, Alan Kirby, became a musical conductor of some standing who was known and performed with Elgar. He was also instrumental in the founding of Croydon Philharmonic in 1914.

My line seems to prefer the worker's path. William married Phyllis Pain and the family resided in Northolt through to the birth of my grandmother Jessie Saunders where the move was made to Ealing. Kirby's continue to be found in the general area around Ruislip and Rickmansworth at least up to the early 1900's. Some moved to Amersham in Buckinghamshire and some have followed the path of emigration.