It all started with a Prince

Over the last 50+ years, I have spent countless hours searching for our immigrant ancestor's story. Utilizing family histories, county histories, searching birth, death, marriages and following every lead that has popped up I am finally able to say with conviction where the Sheridan's originated. Because of DNA testing. Through matches, I found a great group of researchers that were also looking for Sheridan's from Ireland that showed we were connected.  Way, way back and some with more DNA than others.  But the proof was there. Kim, Christopher, Kevin, Wendy, Gearóidíne and myself. There are for sure many others but it is this list that has spent these many years trying to figure the total connection. Thanks to Gearóidíne who is a direct descendant of an original Sheridan family - over 250 years of her father's fathers, fathers staying the course and continuing to live in the same town and on the same land. Luckily a kind soul decided to make a handwritten copy of the ...

Over my years of researching, I have always been on the lookout for an article, a record, anything that shares the name of Aaron Porter. I knew he had children John, James, Hosea, Nicholas, Exa (Axey), Minerva and Sarah. I have followed them from New York to Iowa and all the places in-between. Always looking at books, for different newspaper archives that may be released, or new collections. And based on the children's names, looking for a John or James as his father so I would know I had the 'correct' Aaron Porter. But only if they used traditional naming patterns. Aaron died in 1845, under strange circumstances. He was living in Iowa, yet he died in December of 1845 in Indiana? Why would he have traveled during that time of the year? What would have taken him back to Indiana? There is a typed paper written by a Barrick relative that states he died in Indiana, but no proof. I have found his will and his probate and now this Petition for Partition. This means that one of th...

My 3x great grandfather Aaron Porter shows up for the first time in my family tree back about 1803 in the Lake George area of New York. Where he came from is still to be determined. A typed 'story' about Aaron and his family was written by a Barrick descendant (his daughter Minerva married Alpheus Barrick) and states that he came from the 'Vermont Porters'.  Information from Helen Strine via Don Barrick of Oregon Aaron and his wife Lavina Chapman were married ca 1803 and since Lavina is stated to be from near Lake George, New York it is possible that they were married there.  They had children Exa, John J, Minerva, Sara, Nicholas, and Hosea. Four children were born in New York, and the rest were born in Indiana. The family then went on to Iowa. Based on loose naming traditions Aaron's first-born son was named John so maybe his father's name was also John. I find a John Porter in the 1790 US Census for Castleton, Rutland County, Vermont. The census shows one male...

My mom had a cousin named Grace Pearl Green. She was a distant cousin; technically, she was a 1st cousin 2x removed.  Grace's great-grandmother was Sylvia Bliss Yaw who was my mother's 2x great-grandmother. Sylvia Yaw was also a direct line descendant of John Howland of the Mayflower. Grace was born 26 July 1883 in Jackson, Jackson County, Michigan. She was the only living child of George L Green and Alice Fairfield Green.  Her father George was a railroad salesman in his early working years after having started his career as a bagman. By the 1910 census, he was a paper salesman, and in April 1917 he purchased managing shares in the Crown Paper & Bag Company based in Jackson, Michigan. The company sold brown paper bags and brown paper shipping materials. January 31, 1918 - The Jackson Patriot newspaper On February 2, 1928, George stated that he was heading home due to having some chest pains. He was discovered deceased in his car about fifteen minutes later by an employee....