The Preen Family was found in Shropshire and, to a lesser extent, elsewhere in the West Midlands from the start of the parish registers in the mid sixteenth century (1550 onwards). My present theory is that they took their name from the Domesday manor of "Prene" which split to become the parish of Church Preen and the township of Holt Preen in the adjacent parish of Cardington. They appear in the earliest records in the nearby parish of Hope Bowdler and also in Bridgnorth. The Gloucester Portbooks give details of owners and masters of the ships carrying goods up and down the River Severn and the surname "Preen" appears several times in these records.

Recently a DNA Y-line analysis was carried out and this showed three main families with the name "Preen", which I have called the "CARDINGTON", "KINGS-STANLEY" and "BRIDGNORTH" Preens. I believe there is another family with a very similar name in East Germany, but so far as I know, there is no connection between the two groups. The German name would probably have been derived directly from the Old German word "Preon" meaning "spike" or "brooch". The place-name "Prene" for the Domesday manor may also have come from "preon" - probably from some local topographic feature which was described by this word, but the exact derivation is still uncertain.

Since the quantity of information now collected has become so large, it has been subdivided into "Families" or "Folders" and numbered F01 to F34. These numbers are now related to the three large groups indicated by the DNA Y-line analysis and also colour-coded with the Cardington group in green, the Kings Stanley group in red and the Bridgnorth group in blue.

The first group, called the "CARDINGTON PREENS" are found in the parishes of Hope Bowdler and Cardington in the early records and are probably descended from Philip Preen who lived in Hope Bowdler in the 1660s. They include the group found near Amersham in the nineteenth century, probably descended from a John Preen who settled in Chalfont St Giles in the 1760s. He may have been the same John Preen who was baptised in Rushbury (near Cardington) in 1730 - the cattle drovers from the driving cattle from Wales to Smithfield market in London had a regular route through Shrewsbury and close to Amersham on their way southeast and anyone hired to help with this would be paid off at the end of the trip and left to make their way back home. These start at F01 for (click here to view it) William Preene and his wife Catherine in Hope Bowdler in the 1570s, their descendants and - as the recent study of court rolls for the manor of Hope Bowdler provides more information - their ancestors. This family dies out in the late 1600s. F02 (click here to view it) relates to Philip Preen and his wife Mary in Hope Bowdler in the 1660s and their descendants. One of these descendants, John Preen (1772-1848) and his wife Hannah had four sons, each of whom had large families. The descendants of John's eldest son Thomas Preen and his wife Jane Powell are F03 (click here to view it). Those of William Preen and his wife Elizabeth Pugh are F04 (click here to view it). The descendants of John Preen and his wife Sarah Wallater are F05 (click here to view it) and those of Richard Preen and his wife Sarah King are F06 (click here to view it ). The descendants of John's cousin Thomas Preen are F08 (click here to view it) while the descendants of John Preen (son of Edward Preen and his wife Susannah) who moved to the Amersham area are F07 (click here to view it). Finally the descendants of George Preen of the Leigh, Gloucester have become F09 (click here to view it) since the DNA shows that they belong to this group even though I cannot be certain how they were connected.

The second group, called the "KINGS STANLEY PREENS", are descended from the John Preen who settled in Kings Stanley in the 1660s. He was born during the Civil War or Commonwealth, so it is not surprising that I have not found his baptism record. So far I have failed to trace this group any further back. Kings Stanley is in the area noted for the Gloucestershire Woollen Mills and it is likely that many of these Preens were involved in this trade. They start with F20 (click here to view it) as the descendants of this John Preen and this also includes a few earlier records from Gloucestershire which may be connected. Another family, which started with the arrival of Stephen Preen in Tetbury in 1680 and his descendants are F21 (click here to view it). However the Thomas Preen who appeared in Quedgley in 1800 following his marriage to Susannah Fluck is no longer considered to belong to this family because the DNA shows him to be more closely related to the Bridgnorth group. The Thomas Preen who moved to Maisemore around 1770 and his descendants in Maisemore and adjoining parishes are F22 (click here to view it). Stephen Preen and Mary Dane in Kings Stanley in the 1770s and their descendants form F25 (click here to view it). Some of the descendants of Thomas Preen and Elizabeth Beard in Kings Stanley in the 1780s appear as F23 (click here to view it), but two of their grandsons had such large families they have had to be assigned separate numbers. The descendants of William Preen and Hester Mills in the 1840s became F26 (click here to view it) while the descendants of Henry Preen and Ann Pegler became F27 (click here to view it).

The third group, called the "BRIDGNORTH PREENS", are found in Bridgnorth in the early records. The connection between the Preens from Quedgley and those from Bridgnorth was a new and unexpected result of the DNA analysis and has resulted in a comprehensive re-numbering. The earliest records from Bridgnorth and also the family connected with property in Mill Street which leads to Thomas and Elizabeth Preen in the 1750s, become F30 (click here to view it). The Thomas Preen who appeared in Quedgley in 1800 following his marriage to Susannah Fluck is now numbered F31 (click here to view it). The three sons of Thomas and Elizabeth Preen of Bridgnorth who each had large families now become F32 to F34. In particular, the descendants of Thomas Preen and his wife Mary Wall become F32 (click here to view it). Those of Joseph Preen and his wife Ann Moore in Dunley become F33 (click here to view it) while those of William Preen and his wife Sylvia Wigley become F34 (click here to view it).