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California Pioneers: Sullivan, Scherrebeck and Murphy

*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,...
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Colonial Roots: Fordyce

Fordyce line Welcome to the Fordyce line brick wall: Abraham Fordyce (1753-1810).  The American branch of the Fordyce (or Fordice) family is a twisted, messy and confusing one. Several pockets of Fordyces found in colonial history in various areas: Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Nova Scotia and especially in New Jersey and the Pennsylvanian frontier. Not surprisingly we see them as Patriots and loyalists during the Revolutionary War. There's numerous James and Johns and Henrys for generations obscuring the search.  There are at least two Abrahams overlapping that are particularly difficult to tease apart from each other.  Many stories exist and sadly out right Geneaological Fraud thanks to the infamous and unscrupulous Gustave Anjou. He was was hired (probably by someone in the Samuel W. Fordyce of Arkansas branch) to trace the family line back to its roots in Scotland. Except he totally fabricated or cut&paste his Fordyce research, so much of wha...
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Irish Lines: Sullivan and Pigott

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 ...
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