A - Z Challenge 2018 - C

The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2018 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. The theme I chose is...
My Family Tree Places.

CHEBOYGAN, MI

John Ledingham Mavor was born in Ellon, Scotland and was the brother of my 2x great grandfather. I found John in the United States working as a railway engineer/fireman at Cheboygan, Michigan.  Cheboygan and Mackinaw City did not have rail service until the early 1880s, so he must have been working further south. Perhaps he worked for the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad that had reached Petoskey (Bear River) in 1873. Also many small railroad lines were popping up to transport lumber to Chicago.  

On Thursday the 28 June 1876 a woman named Maggie Mavor walked into the office of Justice Joshua P Sutton and made a complaint...

Rather Mormonish.
Thursday afternoon a lady giving her name as Mrs. Maggie Mavor … ... Justice Sutton's office, and informed that preservator of the law that her husband John L. Mavor, was a much-married man. She avers that on the 15th of May, I875 she was married to the said John at the Island of Mackinaw, and that she had lived with him as his wife. She also averred that on the 20th of May, 1876, he had so far forgotten his marital vows as to marry one Julia Duffany, which act is in violation of the law. Upon this information, Justice Sutton issued a warrant, and Deputy Sheriff Mulvaugh arrested the man of plural wives Thursday night. He was taken before the court, where he was admitted to $500 bail to appear for examination. He states that if he was married to Maggie, he was drunk and didn't know it, or something to that effect. At any rate his mind seems oblivious to the fact of Maggie being his wife. It would now seem probable that before he gets through with this matter he will have his memory refreshed.   

I didn't find any records (censuses or deaths) for any of the three after this, and I have recently written to the county court to try and get the court records. I have a feeling that John's time in Cheboygan was short-lived.

UPDATE 9 Aug 2021:

Through research and DNA matches I found Julia married to a John Wilson and with a daughter Mary living in Altona, MI. I am a DNA match to grandchildren of Mary, and the only way that could be is that Mary is the biological daughter of John Ledingham Mavor!  

A - Z Challenge 2018 - B

The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2018 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. The theme I chose is...
My Family Tree Places.

BROOKLYN, NY

We are back in New York, but this time I have a mystery in Brooklyn.
When I can't find any more info on Ancestry I try searching for my ancestors under Google Books. One of my cousins did this with Colonel Richard Seale of Ireland, who we knew died in Rathangan, Ireland in 1817 and was buried in Clonenagh Churchyard, Laois.

What she found was a complete surprise!

From The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: November 1, 1870-May 31, 1871: 

Vol 21-506, pg 481

It seems that our Col Richard Seale had a daughter (name unknown Seale) who married John M. Kelly, probably in Ireland, and they immigrated to Brooklyn, New York. In these letters John Kelly is pleading with Ulyssees S Grant to intercede on his behalf in claiming an inheritance he believes is due his wife from her fathers estate, when he died over 50 years ago!  This volume shows three letters Kelly wrote to Grant between 1871 and 1873. 

Street Map, Brooklyn NY, 1874

So the challenge now, is to find any descendants of this John M. Kelly and his wife of Brooklyn, NY and try to discover who the wife is and their history.

A to Z Challenge 2018 - A

The Blogging from A to Z Challenge is to post everyday (except Sunday) in the month of April 2018 starting with the letter A and going all the way to Z. The theme I chose is...
My Family Tree Places.

ALBANY, NY

Thomas Seale, my great grandfather John's brother, owned a Merchant Tailor business in Kingston, Ontario for many years since about 1865. John was a silent partner in the business and in April 1881 they declared bankruptcy.  But Thomas wasn't giving up.  His brother George had just retired as a major from the army and in June 1881 his wife died.  Thomas decided George needed a change and talked him into opening a Merchant Tailor store with him in Albany, the capital of New York State.

I imagine the brothers stopped in Utica, NY on their travels back and forth to visit their half sister, Rachel who lived with her husband Jacob and daughter Minnie at 119 Park Avenue. 

The Albany City Directory, published 1 June 1882, listed the brothers residence at 72 S Pearl Street, and their business at 1166 Broadway.

The Albany City Directory published in 1883 revealed a different story...

George is still listed at 1164 Broadway, but it states Thomas died September 29, 1882. I knew Thomas died in the States, but I didn't know where. Then one day I did a search in the US instead of Canada and these two directories came up!

So it was a short stay in Albany for the Seale brothers.  After Thomas died the business was shut down and George moved back to Kingston where he worked as a bookkeeper for his father, who was a carpenter.