2023 Cory Family Society Reunion & Biennial Meeting
September 13-16, 2023
The latest Cory Family Society meeting was in Pacific Grove, California September 13-16, 2023. Pacific Grove and the Monterey peninsula are popular tourist destinations. Listed are Details of Events on our 2023 Meeting page.
Coreys in the Battle of Wyoming
The Battle of Wyoming, also known as the Wyoming Massacre, was a military engagement during the American Revolutionary War between Patriot militiamen and a mixed force of Loyalist soldiers and Iroquois raiders. The clash took place in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania on July 3, 1778, in Exeter and Wyoming, Pennsylvania. More than 300 Patriots were killed in the battle. After the battle, Patriot settlers claimed that the Iroquois raiders had hunted and killed fleeing Patriots, and had then ritually tortured 30 to 40 who had surrendered until they died. In the massacre that followed, which was committed entirely by the Iroquois raiders, 360 American men, women, and children died, and many who escaped to the forests subsequently expired of starvation or exposure.
Dr. David Cory, M.D. has of late been obsessed with the history of the Wyoming Valley, site of Revolutionary War Battle of Wyoming which occurred in present-day northeastern Pennsylvania. Coreys in the William and John lines were involved, as detailed in his article.
2022 Cory Friends Get-Together
July 4-8, 2022
Warner Corton Costal Village, The
Street, Corton, Suffolk, NR32 5HR
The Cory Friends group in the UK held a Get-Together this year at the Warner Corton Costal Village. Their 2022 Newsletter gives an account of the Gathering in July.
The Early History of WILLIAM CORY of Portsmouth, Rhode Island
and his Descendants
FAMILY HISTORY
by Charlotte Muller
This book contains material not previously published on the William Cory/Corey Family. It includes transcriptions of early papers, maps, wills, deeds, pictures, houses, and documented stories.
It is available for download here in PDF format.
Minnetin Ka, Daughter of Chief of Narragansetts
Over the years there has been a lot of speculation about Elizabeth Gasesett as to if she was of native American descent. Christian Alexander Boudreau, of the William/Bristol line has done an extensive analysis of the available data. We have included his paper on our Articles page.
John 1 of Southold DNA Update
Joseph Corey, our 2019 meeting coordinator, received results from his yDNA submittal to the Oxford Ancestry. The results confirms the Norse Ancestry with High Confidence. Interesting discussion of Norse control came to an end in 1472 when the Isles of Orkney and Shetland reverted to Scottish sovereignty. For anyone on the John 1 line, this should save you about ￡500. Joe has furnished three reports: Results, Analysis, and Y-Clan Interpretation.
In other DNA news, Bill Corey, descendant of John Corey of Roxbury, is upgrading to Y-111 at FTDNA. Bill was one of the original subjects of the Cory Family Society Y DNA testing back in the 2000s. That testing showed he is in the John Cory I line, and that has been confirmed at FTDNA with Y-67. David A. Cory has spent a lot of time looking at Bill's ancestry, and has circumstantial evidence that his earliest known ancestor, John Corey of Roxbury, MA, was a grandson of John Cory I. John Cory I had three grandsons named John. One was John Cory III, ancestor to Joe, Mark, and David. He was the son of John Cory II. Another grandson died in Southold in 1754. From his will and other evidence, David believes he was a son of Abraham Cory. That leaves John, son of Jacob. He may be the John Cory who married Mary Griggs in Roxbury, MA in 1713. David plans to finish an article on the first 3 generations of American Corys that lays out all the evidence. Look for it in a future newsletter.
Genealogies
Maintaining redundant locations for our published databases is time consuming and unnecessary. We have decided to use Ancestry.com Public Trees for our primary location of published genealogies and will no longer publish the databases to this website.
Genealogies of each line will be published to Ancestry as time permits. We not able to sync new information to the published trees every time a database is updated. New information (additions, corrections, changes) are made almost every day. Please contact the and he will be happy provide the latest updates.
The following seven of our ten databases have been published to seven Ancestry.com public trees.
- Bristol (William of of Portsmouth)
- Harpole/Northampton (Thomas of Chelmsford/Giles of Salem Village)
- Isaac of Plainfield, CT
- John 1 of Southold
- Norfolk (Bramerton Hall)
- John of Roxbury, MA
- Other Corys not yet identified as to line.
Three additional databases, Devon Corys, Irish Corrys, and Scottish Corries are under development and will be published in the future.
Corys of America, First and Second Editions
by Al B. Cory
Are now available online
Genealogical records assembled in the register format. Consists of two Volumes containing five books, indexed. These books are the result of many years the compiler and the gracious input by other Cory-Corey researchers.
The genealogies described on this site were derived from the databases used to create these books over 20 years ago. The current databases are much more complete and up-to-date. Please contact the and he will create a PDF version of the line that you are interested in and email it to you, free of charge.
Volume I
Available Online
Book I John Cory of Southold, Long Island, New York
Ca 1640 through 1996. Contains 875
pages, Indexed. 13,149 Names, 4407 Marriages, 3,158 Locations and 14 Generations. The book covers New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, California, Washington and many more states at different time frames.
Book II.. The Compilers Mother's family.
Includes Busroe, Downs, Willis, Witten,
Cain, Philips and many more. Willis from early 1600's, Virginia and Kentucky. Wittens from 1500's, Maryland,
Virginia, Kentucky. Downs, 1700's Virginia and Kentucky, Busroe 1825 Kentucky. 503 Names and genealogical
data. 44 pages, indexed, 503 individuals, 126 marriages, 182 locations, 9 generations.
Volume II
Available Online
Book III William Cor(e)y of Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Ca 1640 through 1995.
Contains 603 pages, indexed, 8,847 individuals, 2,994 marriages, 2,252 locations, 12 generations. The
book starts in Portsmouth, Rhode Island with reference to England, Williams birth place. It continues
throughout the United States with his descendants.
Book IV Thomas Cor(e)y of Chelmsford, Massachusetts
Ca 1700s through 1995. There
are 91 pages, 3,640 names, 478 marriages, 484 locations, and 12 generations of descendants.
Book V Cor(e)y Progenitors
Progenitors who could not be linked in the books above.
Starts ca 1600s. There are 109 pages, 1,955 individuals, 726 marriages, 876 locations, 14 generations. Giles
Cory, the martyr of the Salem Witch Trials is included in this section.
Price Second Edition: Each Volume is $35.00, Both Volumes $65.00, Postage Paid.
First Edition:
Available online.
Same Progenitors, less information.
The Great Book of John Cory
John
Cory was a weaver who lived on the eastern end of Long Island in the seventeenth century. Marge Chilson, as
historian of the Cory Family Society, performed a great service to John Cory’s descendants when she published
two booklets—Excerpts from the Greate Book in 1991 and Cory Correspondence
in 1994. The first booklet included photocopies of pages from a book which was passed down through generations
of John Cory’s descendants. The most interesting pages were those with handwriting. The booklet Cory Correspondence
included letters written by James Enos Cory, a descendant who researched the Greate Book in the twentieth century.
The Great Book still exists, though in delicate condition. Even in 1991, Marge noted in her Excerpts, “The book
is in very fragile condition, & it doesn’t bear handling.” Despite the risk of further damage, she and the
descendants then in possession of the book felt it was important to preserve images of some of its pages by
photocopying them, and these copies were included in Excerpts from the Great Book and Cory Correspondence.
In a new essay, The Great Book of John Cory, Dr. David Cory, M.D. examines in detail some of the mysteries of the Great Book, and suggest solutions when possible.
The Corys and Sir Francis Drake?
Cory Society DNA Project
A project was undertaken by the Cory Family Society to determine the genetic relationships between Cory/Corey family lines in North America and Britain by analyzing Y-chromosome markers. We wished to learn whether or not the progenitors: William of Portsmouth, John of Long Island, and Thomas of Chelmsford were genetically related. Each had arrived in America during the period 1635-1645. We also wished to learn where in Britain the progenitors lived before arriving in America, and to what current Cory lines in Britain they might be related.
Don't understand DNA - No problem. Download DNA Basics for a understandable overview.
Inquires and Corrections
The Cory Family Society welcomes inquires/corrections. When sending inquires or corrections, please indicate which line of the family you are inquiring about.
Newsletters
The Cory Family Society publishes a newsletter three times a year to its members. All past issues of the newsletters are on-line, in PDF format.
Publications and Articles
Several members of the Society have written articles or published works on their ancestors, check out the Publications and the Articles pages.