Out of Place: Why Can’t I find John H. Sullivan with His Family?

It took a convoluted case study to prove that the parents of John H. Sullivan were Jerry Sullivan and Mary Sheehan.[1] I have found no records showing him living with his family. He was born in Ireland—maybe County Cork, maybe a neighboring county. His father was a miner, who perhaps moved a lot following the jobs. I hired a researcher in County Cork and he found only two of the children’s baptisms, but not John’s.

The family came to the U.S. in the 1860s, but no ship record has been found of Jerry and Mary with any of the children. Of course, I have no idea when they came. Their children give conflicting dates. John stated he arrived in October 1865.[2] His older brother, Eugene’s obituary stated he arrived when twelve, making it about 1863 or so.[3] His oldest sister, Mary’s obit stated she came at age twelve, making the date 1865.[4] The younger brother, Jerry, stated he arrived when five, making it about 1861.[5] His father’s obituary in 1888 stated he came to America twenty-seven years previously, making that date 1861.[6] So, they could have come anytime between 1861 and 1865.

His youngest brother, Michael J., was born in 1869 in Houghton County, Michigan. In 1870, the only children in Jerry and Mary’s household were Jeremiah, Daniel, Peter, and 9-month-old Michael. The older five children were not in the household.[7]

Mary, the oldest, had married James R. Sullivan a month earlier on 8 May 1870 in Houghton County.[8] Eugene, age 19, likely lived in Providence, Rhode Island, as he married Catherine J Shea there in 1871. John was not living with either of them.

The first record I do find of John is his application for a homestead at Mitchell, Dakota Territory, land office, which he filed on 21 April 1881.[9] Within the next year, he married Anna Marie Gleeson.[10]

The only possible interaction with his family was with the youngest son, Michael, who settled in Butte, Montana, while John settled in Anaconda. Children of John interacted with the children of Michael in later years.

Jerry’s obituary did not name his heirs, but his probate did. Mary Sullivan, the widow, daughters, Mary Sullivan, Julia Murphy, and Johanna Sullivan, and sons Eugene Sullivan, John Sullivan, Jerry Sullivan, Dan Sullivan, Peter Sullivan, and Mike Sullivan.[11] The petition for letters of administration named each of the heirs with their ages and place of residence. The lettering is squeezed together and difficult to make out but they named John, age 38, Anaconda, Montana.[12]

So, this probate record likely connects John with his parents and other siblings, though no record shows him living with his parents. He likely left home as a teenager to work, perhaps to support the family and with his common name, he has not been easily found in the 1870 census. Luckily, he was remembered in his siblings’ obituary as a surviving brother and seemed to know where he was living, so there must have been some communication. His own obituary in 1932 only named his children. He was the last surviving child of Jerry and Mary.

#52Ancestors-Week 3: Out of Place

This is my sixth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, My Trails into the Past and Mam-ma's Southern Family.

---

[1] A case study I wrote for my BCG certification portfolio.

[2] "South Dakota, County Naturalization Records, 1865-1972," images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2078640 : 17 Jan 2023) > Davison > Declarations of intention 1880-1886 > image 122 of 240, p. 209, John H. Sullivan, 1882.

[3] “Eugene Sullivan Passed Away,” Staples (Minn) World, 2 Nov 1922, p. 1.

[4] “Death of Mrs. Sullivan,” The Frontier (O’Neill, Neb), 22 Sep 1910.

[5] “Railway Employee for 53 Years Dies at Home in Tacoma,” Tacoma (Wash) Daily Ledger, 25 Apr 1926, p. A8.

[6] “A Good Temperance Lecture,” Brainerd (Minnesota) Dispatch, 14 Dec 1888, p. 1, col. 4.

[7] 1870 U.S. census, Houghton Co, Michigan, Franklin twp, p 22, dwl 152, fam 162, Jeremiah Sullivan, National Archives and Records Administration M593, roll 674.

[8] “Michigan, U.S., Marriage Records, 1867-1952,” digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9093: accessed 18 Jan 2023) > Registers, 1868-1886 > 1868-1875 > 1870 Monroe-1871 Jackson > image 653 of 632, Houghton County, 27 Feb 1870, no. 279, James Sullivan-Mary Sullivan; Michigan Depart of Community Health, Div. of Vital Records and Health Statistics, Lansing.

[9] Homestead application, no. 15183, 21 April 1881, in John H. Sullivan’s (Davison County) homestead file bearing final certificate no. 7311, 8 Jan 1883, Mitchell, South Dakota, Land Office; Land Entry Papers, 1800-1908; Record Group 49; Records of the Bureau of Land Management; National Archives, Washington, DC.

[10] No church record has been found. The church, Holy Family Church in Mitchell has a transcription of church records that begin in Nov. 1882, yet the church was founded in 1880. Likely the first few pages of the record book were lost.

[11] Final Decree, 27 Mar 1892, Probate Case no. 174, Jerry Sullivan, Todd County, Minnesota, Probate Court; Minnesota Historical Society, film SAM 221, roll 2.

[12] Petition for Letters of Administration, 31 Jan 1891, Probate Case No 174, Jerry Sullivan, Todd County, Minn, Probate Court. 

Copyright © 2023 by Lisa S. Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.