Ancestral Ramblings

Today was spent pondering the twisted Irish lines of Sullivan and Pigott. Often I redo searches online hoping to find a new information finally connect the numerous dots that are my Sullivan and Pigott Irish ancestors. Sullivan is like an Irish version of searching for Smith. Pigott is unusual but just as elusive.    Known: John Sullivan (ggg-uncle) was a Pioneer of California and according to his card on file his father was Patrick Sullivan and Mother was Mary Pigott. He states he was born in 1824 in Askeaton, Limerick, Ireland. It's also documented he immigrated with his family at age of 6 to Quebec as part of the "Frampton Irish" who journeyed far from their native shores in hopes of a better life. Several Sullivan families are shown living in to region and we know that my Sullivans joined the first outward migration west headed up by the Martin Sr. Murphy and Miller clans in 1842 to Holt Co., MO as part of the Platte River Land Grants. After several rough years here ...

*disclaimer: see bottom of post* Brick walls are stumbling block of every family historian. Perseverance is key. Over time you chip away painstakingly compiling notes, facts, tidbits of seemingly unconnected information until one day...the wall cracks wide open. This happened recently with my research on my paternal lines. Many years ago my grandmother Freda showed us the old Pollard Family Bible. On the inside cover was a treasure trove of hand-written details: names and key dates for three generations. Somehow I had the prescience of mind to grab a notebook and transcribe every bit. This was the launching pad for my research  many years later with the advent of the internet. Here are my paternal great-grandparents: Albert Walter Pollard, Anne Monahan and their son (my grandfather) Albert Cyril Pollard. Picture probably taken c. 1910s. Think the family bible Grandma Fritz (Freda's nickname) showed me was given to Anna Monahan-Pollard by her family priest (Ross Parish,...

So...what does your family like to do on the weekends? Well . . . we like to visit very old dead people we don't even know. Seeing that we're now living in an area just chock-a-block full of history - most of it now long forgotten - we've decided to spend more time this year exploring our own historical backyard. Today's outing: The small Stent Cemetery near Jamestown, California. Aaron's maternal grandmother, Nettie Jones Perkins supposedly was born in this very town when it was actually a thriving mining town. By the advent of her birth in 1900 it was in decline, as were many small towns in the region once mines became depleted. By 1925 the post office was decommissioned and shut up for good. Today, all that's left is this very small, hardly noticeable cemetery. Blink and you'll miss it. Only a handful of tombstones remain with many forgotten graves, now unmarked. Some are beautiful while other are mere rustic slabs of granite; no name, no det...

Fordyce Family Photos

Here's the Fordyce family photos I've scanned to date. I've one more album to scan and will add to this album soon. These photos were in an album Barbara has that was Freda's. It contains many of Freda as a girl with her friends. A few mystery photos I've tried to identify. If anyone can add more information please let me know.

Click on the photo below to go to the Pollard-Fordyce Album I've created online. Once there you can scroll through, order prints, email a link to other family members. Or just wonder "who are all these people?" since sadly no one left notes for posterity. Some of the photos are pretty amazing. Many of Pollard as a child in Ross, Freda as a girl with her parents, and even a photo that I suspect shows Pollard's parents as a young couple with a big group of friends. They look to be a newly married or courting couple based on their appearance and clothing styles. I've discovered in a census (1880 I think) that Anna Monahan was living with the Pollard's in the city house. She's listed as "family friend and unmarried" so maybe this picture dates from around this period? It's fun to speculate. Enjoy! Pollard-Fo rdyce Family Album