When Peder Ian Gries was born in 1701, in Tjærby, Gimming, Randers, Denmark, his father, Christen Nielsen Griis, was 48 and his mother, Kirsten Jensdatter Rousing, was 22. He married Bodil Ann Bertilsdotter in 1701, in Lofthus, Ullensvang, Hordaland, Norway. They were the parents of at least 1 daughter. He died in August 1740, in Gimming, Randers, Denmark, at the age of 39, and was buried in Gimming, Randers, Denmark.