Humfris emigrated from Cork to East (Indonesia/Thailand?) end 19th century

[Honneybunny]

OK, this is a longshot, but since I cannot seem to find out more elsewhere...

I am looking for my maternal grandfather's grandfather. My grandfather was born in 1918 in Paree, a small village on Eastern Java, in what is now Indonesia, but then Dutch Indies. His mother's maiden name was Humfris. This is how it was spelled on his birth certificate.

She presumably was born at the end of the 19th century. Her mother was said to be of Portuguese descent, but that may have been a bit of an invention (there are some stories that she was born in Thailand).

I have always heard that her father, whose name was Humphrey Humfris came from Cork in Ireland. I have no records to support this though. I guess what I am looking for is some record of him; birth, emigration, marriage, death. It seems to be a needle in a haystack!

It seems a bit unfair that on my dh's side of the tree I have most branches going back to 1500-s, and on mine I am stuck.

Help anyone?

just bumping this
would anyone have any suggestions where to start, how to find out more?

Have you checked the Irish 1911 census which is available online? With such an ususual surname it should be easier (in theory)

A lot of the Irish family records held centrally were destroyed by fire during the War of Independance...

And I'm not sure when records started to be held centrally rather than in local parishes...

Do you know the origin of the name Humphris? Could it be French? There was a French Hugenot community in Cork city at one point. Do you know if he came from the city or the county?

hi, thanks for the reply.
Surname might be anything from humfris, to humphries, humphreys, etc. There are loads of variations. I think reason why it was spelled "Humfris" on my grandfather's birth certificate was because for the Dutch officials it was probably a very unusual name. Dutch do not know "ph" either, and phonetically would write that as "f".
I have checked the 1911 census but have not found anything interesting. It might just be too late, as my grandfather was born in 1918, and for his mother to be born in time for that she would have been born at the end of the 19th centrury. This means that her dad Humphrey would no longer be in Ireland in 1911, and therefore he would be unlikely to be on the census for that year (although his family might still be of course....)
i will continue to look around.

I think the 1901 census is due to be released on-line sometime this year which might help. I agree the variations in spelling is a pita - I think my grandfathers birth and baptismal certs (only done a few days apart) have different spellings of his surname...