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....

This was a tough one - there are so many memorable moments in my mind from the past. The one I keep going back to is our honeymoon (after the fact) trip to Disneyland in California. We were married in July 1974, but as Dan had just transferred to Flint, Michigan with North Central Airlines in April he wasn't able to take any vacation time at that point. He was only able to get a couple extra days off that weekend. He had bid his vacation for October so that was the 'big trip' of the year. We spent a lot of time planning our honeymoon trip to California. Back then we could get passes on other airlines, so he had set us up on United Airlines to Los Angeles. And with a few extra dollars, we had First Class from Chicago to LA.  What a flight! Drinks were plentiful, the meal was stupendous. The Stewardess wheeled a cart down the aisle with a huge beef roast that was cut at our seat. Vegetables, potatoes, gravy, rolls and butter. I can see why we were dressed to the nines! Me in ...

My first major musical that I attended happened on December 20, 1980, in Detroit, Michigan. My husband and I had moved to Romulus, Michigan the previous October when he had taken a promotion for his job at North Central Airlines. Our second daughter had been born in February, and not only did we not know very many people, but for a night out we also had to find a babysitter for two children under the age of three. On top of that, money didn't grow on trees obviously and we were a one income family.  So, to find the extra dollars for babysitter, dinner and tickets was a chore all in itself. A fellow employee Craig and his wife Karen who also had small children at home were interested in attending with us. After some conversations, it was decided we would do a night out on the town just before Christmas. We picked the national touring company that was showing the Neil Simon play 'They're Playing Our Song' at the Fisher Theater in downtown Detroit. The music was written by...

Memories alone are family heirlooms to be cherished. But when it comes to tangible items, I have many different ones.  Although I have nothing in my collection that are tied to a famous person, artist or philosopher, to me they are priceless. I have a few antiques, school memorabilia from previous ancestors, and some letters and autograph books. Mainly items that are tied to a specific person or era of our family. One of my favorite items I am the keeper of is a Sheridan family bible. It seems so innocent of an item, yet it connects to our immigrant ancestor Michael Sheridan, Sr who traveled from Cloncovid/Clonkiffel, County Cavan, Ireland to America in the early 1800's.   Written in pencil on the inside cover is "Michael Sheridan Bible 1845". The publication is a Douay Catholic Bible.  The bible was published in 1839 in Philadelphia by Eugene Cummiskey. He was an Irish immigrant also, active in printing and bookselling and one of the first American publishers to pro...