My Trails into the Past

This has been a hard post to write in that I could not think of anything specific to write about. I’m sure many of my ancestors had the courage to make the journeys they did to come to the United States and later make the moves further west each generation. It takes a lot of courage to leave the place you know to go to a place that is unknown. I do not know the reasons they moved. No record has been passed down either by journal or letter, so we can only guess at the reasons they may have made the journeys. Things were bad at home and another place looked better. Or the place at home was too crowded and the land further west offered new hope. Perhaps someone else moved first and wrote back saying, come! There is one person I know who must have had some courage. First to leave her husband, and then to move across the state to a new place to live. This was my paternal grandmother. She was probably thinking about her four children: three daughters and one son. Like a mother hen, she w...

Outside activities included phenology, train club meeting, dinner with daughter, and getting covid and flu shots. Genealogy Genealogy Volunteer/Work: This week, I volunteered at the History Center twice. John and I checked all the boxes from Betty’s donation for any photos we missed. On Tuesday, I answered some queries and entered more books into the library database. I volunteered at the FamilySearch Center in Oakland. I haven’t helped anyone in ages, as most who come in the evenings are regulars. I also got the press release out for this month’s BCG webinar. Genealogy Meetings:  Jacqueline and I met twice, Monday and Friday, and Friday will be our new day. We made plans for her trip down to SF in November to see Rachel Maddow speak. I attended the Labor SIG and the Renewal CDG group session where Carol shared her renewal journey. Genealogy Writing/Research : This week I worked on my great-grandfather, John H. Sullivan’s line. I also did some Hutson work at the Oakland ...

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans: It's Saturday Night again - Time for some more Genealogy Fun!! Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings , is to: 1)  What geographic and community places matter to you?  2)  Pick one place (building, village, town, city, county, state/province) and describe your connection to it and why it matters. Here's mine: I could not think of an ancestral place that matters to me. My families were always on the move and didn’t stay in one spot more than a generation or two. However, I have a spot that matters to me. It’s the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. This structure with Corinthian columns, arches, sculptures, and the Greco-Roman rotunda, was created for the 1915 World’s Fair. California architect Bernard Maybeck designed it. It was supposed to be torn down after the fair like the other buildings but is the only structure from the fair that survives. Because it was meant to be temporary, it became in disrepair. In 1964 ...

John H. and Anna (Gleeson) Sullivan lived in South Dakota (previously Dakota Territory) from about 1880 to 1889-1890. They lived in Deer Lodge County, Montana, to the late 1920s. Not a lot came up in FamilySearch full-text search for "John H Sullivan" except for several images of trust deeds and mortgages for a piece of property in Anaconda known as lot 5 in block 18. The same lot in Anaconda was mortgaged multiple times. I did not locate the original deed from the grantor. Below is a map showing block 18 and lot 5. They lived on Commercial Avenue during the same time period as the deeds/mortgages. Map of the city of Anaconda, Deer Lodge County, Montana, created by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company engineers, 1944; Montana State Library ,  https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/87665.  Below are the results: 1895 Nov 15. Trust Deed. Between John H Sullivan and Anna Sullivan his wife of Anaconda, Deer Lodge Co, Montana, parties of the first part, and C. K. Palmer, Trustee, ...

John H. Sullivan is my paternal great-grandfather, the father of Anna Marie Sullivan who married William Cyril Hork. I have no records naming him until he shows up in Dakota Territory getting land from the federal government. Below is a timeline of the information I have already gathered. Once this is created, I can then do more searching in newspapers, full-text search at FamilySearch , and regular searching at Ancestry and other genealogy database sites. Creating this timeline will likely spark new questions, which will be put into red text. I might even find conflicts that need to be addressed. 1854 June 20. John H. Sullivan was born 20 June 1854. There is no birth or baptism record for him. Other documents suggest his birth range: His intent naturalization in 1882 said he was born in 1853. [1] His land patent application in 1881 said he was over 21, and his own testimony as the claimant on 10 June 1882 stated he was 29 (1853). [2] 1900 census gave June 1854. [3] 1910 census i...