52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - A Genealogy Challenge (Week 1)

Today I decided to attempt a genealogy challenge for the year: writing about 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks, created by Amy Johnson Crow (www.amyjohnsoncrow.com). Each week of 2023 Ms. Crow has provided a prompt. They are intentionally broad or ambiguous to allow for lots of options and interpretations.

I'm going to just jump right in (one week late)!

Week 1: I'd Like to Meet

Really, I'd love to meet all of my ancestors and collateral-line relatives. But, I have to pick just one, so I'm choosing George Pirl.

George Pirl (Perl/Purl/Pearl) was my 3rd-great grandfather on my mother's side. He was born around 1806 and died in 1889 in Pennsylvania. The reason I'd like to meet him is that he is one of my biggest "brick walls" in my family history. On one census it says his parents were also both born in Pennsylvania, so I have some confidence that the Pirls were in the U.S. since the mid-late 1700s at least. But I do not know George's parents' names.

Other than his parents' names and other vital information, I have two other questions to ask George: were the Pirls originally from Scotland? And did the Pirl name evolve from an earlier version, possibly Burl? These are both questions that my grandpa, Ed Pirl, really wanted to answer when he was studying his family history too.

I don't have any photos of George Perl himself, but I do have a picture of his gravestone from FindAGrave.com. He is buried in Mount Zion Cemetery, Indian Head, Fayette County, Pennsylvania.

Photo Credit: Larry Gilbert.

Accessed at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/130637153/george-pirl

Thanks for reading! Here's a previous post I wrote about George Pirl and his farm. https://lieselsfamilyhistoryfinds.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-pirl-family-farm.html Check it out if you're interested. I hope you'll join me as I continue this weekly challenge to write about my ancestors throughout the year.