My Trails into the Past

This is week 4 of the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge” by Amy Crow from No Story Too Small . Jack Sullivan was my great-uncle, the only brother of my father’s mother, Anna Marie Sullivan. Jack’s parents were John H. Sullivan and Anna Maria Gleeson. He was born 9 Feb 1887 in Mitchell, Davison County, in what was then Dakota Territory and was baptized on 29 Mar 1887. [1] His father had attempted to homestead but by now they were living in town. Jack had two sisters born before him: Helena M. “Nellie” and Loretto M., and three sisters born after him: Rosemary, Ethel E. and Anna Marie. Rosemary, however, died as an infant. He moved with the family to Anaconda, Deer Lodge County, Montana sometime before 1900.  I don’t know what brought them to Anaconda besides the mining industry that Jack’s grandfather, Jeremiah Sullivan, had been a part of back in County Cork. A lot of Irish worked in the mining industry and there were many “Sullivans” listed in census and city dir...

I have been working on preparing for a trip to Salt Lake City to research at the Family History Library. Six days of researching in the microfilm- and book-filled library is a wonderful and fulfilling experience. So I began to prepare by looking at the dead-end lines in my family tree, especially those on my mother’s side who lived in the South. My third great-grandparents fit that bill: Samuel Johnston and Elizabeth McCormack. Samuel Johnston was born about 1816 in South Carolina, based on age 34 in the 1850 census and age 44 in the 1860 census. [1] These are the only two census records I have found for Samuel. He did not appear on the 1870 census with his widowed wife and children. [2] It was difficult to find Samuel in the 1850 Yalobusha County, Mississippi census until I searched for some of his neighbors from the 1860 Yalobusha Co, MS census and found him near those same neighbors. I could see why he was difficult to find. His written surname looked like “Dehuson...

My husband’s third great granduncle, David Bishop, married Mary Magdalene Long on this date 15 Jan 1809 in Ross County, Ohio. [1] Ross, Ohio, Marriages vol A, p 96; FHL microfilm 281637. The marriage record does not say much:  "I hereby certify that David Bishop and Mary Long was joined in the Holy State of matrimony on the 15th day of January by me."                                                                     John Matthews, January 30th, 1809. Because it stated Holy State of Matrimony,  does that mean John Matthews was a minister? I checked other entries on the same page. One was from John Ratcliff, J.P. so now I know who was a Justice of the Peace. Another signature was John Collins, Minister of the Methodist E. Church.  Checking further pages answered the question. John ...