Show ContentsPierry History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The history of the Pierry name began during the Middle Ages in a region known as Brittany. The French name is derived from the popular French personal name Pierre, which comes from the ancient name Petros, or Peter, meaning "rock".

Early Origins of the Pierry family

The surname Pierry was first found in Brittany where they held a family seat in the seigneurie of Launay and Vieux Launay.

They also branched to the regions of Neufchatel, île-de-France, at Chazelle and Courcelles, the Franch Comte at Viseney, Paris (Ablancourt) and Geneva. They were elected to the noblesse as Barons of the Empire. The Pieroway variant is an interesting one. Some sources believe the name to be a Channel Islands variant and a branch of the family settled on Sandy Point, Newfoundland. Today the family can be found in Stephenville, St. Georges and in the Corner Brook area of Newfoundland. 1 Ada Pieroway of St. Georges, married Ronald MacDonald of Antigonish who won the second Boston Marathon in 1898 and Stella Pieroway, a teacher at St. Geroges, married James Ronald MacDonnell, Newfoundland politician who represented St. Georges in the Newfoundland House of Assembly from 1919 to 1923.

Jacques Perrault and his wife Marguerite (née Cache) of Saint-Jacques, Bourgogne, had two sons, François and Jacques. François, a merchant, and Jacques, a surgeon, travelled together to New France in the early 1700's. François married Suzanne Page, daughter of Guillaume and Elisabeth (née Letartre), in Quebec on 26th November 1715. Jacques married Marie-Elisabeth Navers, daughter of Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Françoise (née Sauvin), in Château-Richer on 10th January 1724. 2

Early History of the Pierry family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Pierry research. Another 24 words (2 lines of text) covering the years 1608, 1611, 1613, 1628, 1644, 1661, 1670, 1680, 1684, 1687, 1688, 1691, 1703 and 1717 are included under the topic Early Pierry History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Pierry Spelling Variations

Changes of spelling have occurred in most surnames. The earliest explanation is that during the early development of the French language, names were not yet fixed in spelling. Usually a person gave his version of his name, phonetically, to a scribe, a priest, or a recorder. This depended on accent, and local accents frequently changed the spelling of a name. Some variables were adopted by different branches of the family name. Hence, there are some spelling variations of the name Pierry, including Perot, Perrot, Perrotte, Perreault, Perault, Perrault, de Perrot, De Perrot, De Perot, De Perault, De Perrault, Perrott, Perrau, Perraut, Perroud, Peroud, Perraud, Perrauld, Perauld, Peraud, Perroux, Peroux and many more.

Early Notables of the Pierry family

Notable amongst this name at this time was Nicolas Perrot (1644-1717), French explorer, diplomat, and fur trader, one of the first white men in the Upper Mississippi Valley; François-Marie Perrot (1644-1691), French Governor of Montreal by a royal commission in 1670, and later Governor of Acadia (1684-1687); Nicolas Perot (ca. 1611-1661), French Jansenist and historian; and his brothers, Claude Perrault (1613-1688), French architect...
Another 62 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Pierry Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Pierry migration to the United States +

Migration from France to New France or Quebec as it was now more popularly called, continued from France until it fell in 1759. By 1675, there were 7000 French in Quebec. By the same year the Acadian presence in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island had reached 500. In the treaty of Utrecht, the Acadians were ceded by France to Britain in 1713. In 1755, 10,000 French Acadians refused to take an oath of allegiance to England and were deported. They found refuge in Louisiana. In 1793, the remaining French in these provinces came under British rule. Meanwhile, in Quebec, the French race flourished, founding in Lower Canada, one of the two great solitudes which became Canada. Many of this distinguished family name Pierry were prominent in social, cultural, religious and political affairs in France and New France. Amongst the settlers in North America with this distinguished name Pierry were

Pierry Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • Thomas Pierry, aged 28, who landed in New Orleans, La in 1835 3


  1. Seary E.R., Family Names of the Island of Newfoundland Montreal: McGill's-Queen's University Press 1998. Print. (ISBN 0-7735-1782-0)
  2. Olivier, Reginald L. Your Ancient Canadian Family Ties. Logan: The Everton Publishers, Inc., P.O. Box 368, 1972. Print
  3. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)


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