Pullen DNA

     Our ancestor Martha Pullen was married to John Brown Morehead between 1857 and 1860 when she appears in the 1860 Federal Census in Winona, Minnesota. I couldn't find a marriage record for them in Winona.
    Her death records and the obituaries for her in St. Paul and Winona do not give any genealogical information.

    A Martha Pullen appears in the 1850 Federal Census in Illinois but there was no other clear evidence that this was "my" Martha.  One fact that did connect was that this Martha was born in Indiana and other census records have our Martha born there as well.
    There is now some DNA evidence that Martha belongs to the Dennis Pullen & Nancy Kingen family in that someone on Ancestry DNA shares DNA with me and her ancestor is the daughter of David Pullen & Elizabeth Duncan--Minnie Pullen Reynolds.
     That is probably as close as I'll get!
     David Pullen lived in Rock Island County, Illinois.  His first wife was Nancy Kingen. They were married in Boteourt, Virginia. They lived in Indiana for a while.  Martha was born there according to census records. Nancy died in 1844 in Illinois.  He later married Mrs. Jane Coulter.  He is buried in Eliza Creek Cemetery, in Mercer County, Illinois.
     Martha Pullen Morehead died in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1884 and was buried in Winona. She was the mother of Wilbert O. Morehead, father of Catherine Morehead, mother of Marguerite Luella Hogan.
   

RIP Patrick Thomas Burns 1930-2012

     Uncle Pat would appreciate this:

     Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, let perpetual light shine upon him.  May he and all the faithfully departed rest in peace.  Amen. 

He told me recently that he sends out the births and deaths of people to an email list, especially deaths, so people will be reminded of them and say an Ave.  
     So, say an Ave for Uncle Pat.

Marguerite Luella Hogan Burns, RIP

Yesterday was the 22nd anniversary of Mom's death.  Her wake was on Mother's Day.  Extremely fitting!

May she rest in peace.

5th cousin to my Grandmother's Cat

Well, the DNA is back on Colette's spit test!  We sent our DNA into 23andMe to see what we could find out about our relationship.  We do have a bit of DNA in common.  We were categorized as 3rd to distant cousins.

If we follow the information we have, I am about 7 generations from the common ancestor and Colette is 5 generations, so I guess that would be distant! We might be 3rd cousins twice removed.  Colette and my grandfather were 3rd cousins. There are still a few lose ends to clear up.  Anyway, it's the Herlihy name that is the connection.

Handwriting Analysis...

The above is a sample of the handwriting of Sarah Jane Lewis Thompson Spencer.   Phil Cowen, a Thompson descendant, sent me the scan.  I have previously written about Don Burgett's kindness in contacting me about the letters and he provided me with transcriptions of this letter and 2 others by the family.  Thanks to both Phil & Don for this wonderful piece of our family history.