The Parsons Cemetery has three major Parsons Family Benefactors:
Benjamin Parsons gifted farm property to St. Peters Episcopal Church for use as a cemetery in 1873. Benjamin had already opened his family cemetery to community members and graves predate 1873. The cemetery then as now is open to all.
Alison J. Parsons, a cousin, donated the Cemetery’s entrances in 1967 to honor his parents and ancestors resting therein.
George W. Parsons, another cousin, bequeathed substantial funding to the Parsons Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund, managed by the Community Foundation of Eastern Shore.
To assist you in determining whether you too are a Parsons descendant of ancestors, John Parsons 1600’s, we are providing the genealogy of our three benefactors. We worked with obituaries and the wonderfully thorough research of Ruth Dryden. The Parsons Family of Maryland Genealogy was compiled by Ruth T. Dryden in 1993, and there is a reference copy in the Maryland Room of the Wicomico County Main Library. Remember these are only three, her book has hundreds.
| Generations | Benjamin Parsons | Alison J. Parsons | George W. Parsons |
| 1st | John Parsons 1600’s | John Parsons 1600’s | John Parsons 1600’s |
| 2nd | Peter Parsons 1658-1687 | Peter Parsons 1658-1687 | Peter Parsons 1658-1687 |
| 3rd | Peter Parsons 1680-1724 | Peter Parsons 1680-1724 | Peter Parsons 1680-1724 |
| 4th | George Parsons 1708-1782 | George Parsons 1708-1782 | John Parsons 1704-1758 |
| 5th | William Parsons 1733-1793 | George Parsons 1734-1809 | John Parsons 1736-1795 |
| 6th | William Parsons Jr. 1767-1843 | Jehu Parsons 1780-1859 | Peter Parsons 1762-1823 |
| 7th | Benjamin 1789-1873 | Alison Chapman Parsons 1818-1868 | Peter Ritchie Parsons 1792-1830 |
| 8th | No Descendants | Jehu T. Parsons 1849-1916 | George Parsons 1821-1880 |
| 9th | Alison J. (Jehu) Parsons 1899-1983 | Joseph W (W. Joseph) Parsons 1857 | |
| 10th | No Descendants | George W. (William) Parsons 1916-2000 | |
| 11th | No Descendants |
Question: Is Benjamin Parsons related to John B. Parsons, a millionaire businessman originally from Wicomico County who left a liberal endowment to create a retirement home for aged women in Salisbury, Founder of the John B. Parsons Home for the Aged, Lemmon Hill Salisbury MD.
Answer: Benjamin Parsons and John B. Parsons are 3rd cousins twice removed.
As you may have noticed, none of our benefactors have direct descendants. If you are a descendant of John Parsons’s son Peter and grandson Peter and are one of their cousins or distant cousins, we would very much like to recognize you. There are no obligations or expectations involved, however, if there is history you would like to share, we would love to have it. Parsons Cemetery uses Ramaker & Associatess, Inc. Cemetery Information Management System (CIMS) for maintaining operational records of the cemetery. All information in the database is linked to a digital (GPS) cemetery map, which is updated constantly. The system will allow Parsons to include considerable data about those resting in Parsons including pictures that support genealogy research. This data is not currently online but will be once we have entered enough information to justify it. Please if you have information, go back to our contacts and contact our webpage manager or another Committee Member. Thank you.
To further assist your ancestry search, we thought it may be useful to provide you with a link to Benjamin Parsons’ Will