Roseberry Perkins was born in Indiana, probably May 1819, based on both census information and his age at death. On the 1850 census, dated 14 October, his age was 27. On the 1870 census, dated 6 June, he was 51. On the 1880 census, dated 10 June, his age was 52. According to the 1900 census, he was born in May 1819. However, census information is consistent about his place of birth being Indiana.

His first marriage was to Martha Buzan in Daviess County on Nov 12, 1849. They had one child Emily, born c.1854 and died sometime after the 1870 census. His second marriage was to Perlina Hannah on Jan 1, 1857 in Daviess County.

According to both the 1900 and 1910 census, Perlina had given birth to 10 children; since her marraige to Roseberry is her only known marriage, these would all be children from this marriage. However, only five survived to be counted on census records. These are Joanna (Joan), born c.1858, Jemima, born c.1860, John O, William T, and Francis M, born c. 1869. All the children had left home by the 1900 census, but Joanna, now a widow whose married name was Fisher, had moved back in with her parents, along with her two children. With the exception of John O and William T, the submitter has had difficulty tracing the children of this couple and does not know their burial locations. However, they had all died by January 1946, when William T died, since according to his obituary he was the last surviving member of he immediate family.

He seems to have worked in Barr Township as a farmer for most of his life, since this is where he is living and what he is employed as on the 1850, 1870, 1880, and 1900 census.


According to the index to Daviess County death records, he died on December 7, 1900. His age was 81. He is in the first volume of the book "Cemeteries of Daviess County, Indiana" under the category "unmarked graves" in Osmon Cemetery.