Week 7 - Letters and Diaries - Conner family

 I always dreamed of finding a slew of diaries from my Sheridan family that I could ooh and ahh over and find all the answers to all my questions. Ya, right. Never going to happen.  

Instead, I do have a letter written on my husband's side that has a lot of family information in it.  It was written by Eva Gates Connor who was the daughter in law of Archibald Conner. Archie was a younger brother to my husband's great-grandfather, William Conner.

Archie was born 3 Jan 1879 in Barrie, Ontario, Canada and ca 1897 married Elisabeth Weigett. They had two sons by 1900, Russell and Ernest, both born in Simcoe, Ontario, Canada. Between 1900 and 1904 the young family had immigrated into Michigan.  Children Alice, Kenneth and Hazel were born 1907, 1910, and 1913, respectively in Twining, Arenac, Michigan.

In Archie's immediate family, each person seemed to like a different spelling of their last name, so they are intermixed throughout their records. In the cemetery Archie and Elisabeth is spelled Conner. The large 'name' stone is spelled Conners. One son is Connor and another is Connors. All in the same family plot.

Back in 2000, I had spoken with Dan's Aunt Eldora Conner about his family, and she shared that Eva would be able to help. Eva had been married to Ernest Connors, and he had passed back in 1981, but she was a wealth of information, although she had just turned 90 years old.  I asked Eldora to help out and she sent off a letter. Back when it had to go via US Mail. Eva answered her in a missive dated 21 November 2000. This is verbatim.....

Dear Eldora,

I received your note and was glad to hear from you.  My eyesight is poor and I have tremors. Some days very bad.  These people in genalogy should start earlier. Most have died and you have lost a lot of history.  Ernies father's name was Archie. He was married to Elizabeth Weigett. Both from Barrie Ont Canada.  He had 3 brothers. Wm, Frank & Ed. Ed was never married. He lived with Ernies family for some time. I don't know what happened to him.

Leota might know. She wasn't very old. I don't know if Archie had sisters. Archie had 3 sons Russell, Ernie & Keny. He had 2 daughters Alice & Hazel. Alice died when she was 13 during the 1918 flu epidemic, so did her father. Hazel was only 19 when she died. I think 1929. She left Leota just a toddler who was <raised> by her grandmother & Ernie & kenny. The boys married. Russell to Tillie - West VA. Ernest to Eva Gates - Turner, MI no children. Kenneth to Gladys Matuzak - Omer, MI no children.  Russell & Tillie - 2 boys. Archie & Raymond.  Archie & Joyce live in Prescott, MI.  Raymond died in a car accident. Hazels daughter married Thornton Cueriston (sp). They had 5 children. 2 boys - 3 girls.  Thornton died Sept 1985. Girls were Karen, Jill & Holly. 1 boy was Alan and can't remember the other. Russell died 11-6-1971 Standish hospital.

Ernest died 12-16-198_ in Traverse City, MI.

Kenneth died 1988 in nursing home.

Archies family came across the ice on a sleigh to Grand Marais, MI.  They lived there several years and moved to Twining where Kenny, Alice & Hazel were born.

Hope you can read this as I am pretty shakey.

Happy Thanksgiving

It took me a number of years to put all those people in the correct families and order. But the best part was the comment about them coming across on the ice. I have never found an immigration record for Archie, Elisabeth or their sons Russell and Ernest.

Barbie









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