Author: Lisa Shaughnessy

Blessing Sisters Story Part 4
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Blessing Sisters Story Part 4

This is a multi-post series about the Blessing Sisters. Anna Eliza Blessing Winney is my 3rd great grandmother. You can see all of the posts in the series here: Blessing Sister Stories

Elizabeth Blessing Adjusts to Wisconsin

Although the farmland along the Mississippi River in the southwest corner of Wisconsin reminded her of home in Missouri, Elizabeth missed her brother and sisters terribly. Her father spent up to twelve hours each day in the mine, and when he returned home, he collapsed from exhaustion.

She distracted her mind by making the small cabin homey and ensuring Abraham was eating decent meals to keep his strength up for the grueling tasks. He had stressed his desire to bring her brother and sisters here, and she determined to have the house ready, no matter how cramped it might be.

Continue reading →

Blessing Sisters Story Part 3
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Blessing Sisters Story Part 3

This is a multi-post series about the Blessing Sisters. Anna Eliza Blessing Winney is my 3rd great grandmother. You can see all of the posts in the series here: Blessing Sister Stories

The Wisconsin Lead Mines, 1831

In that same letter Abraham wrote to is brother John in 1835 he said, “a man may be poor today and tomorrow be rich if he can be lucky.” Abraham had no idea what the life of a miner was like, or if he would be one of the lucky, but of all the opportunities for working men in the western territories, mining felt like the quickest possible way to bring his children back home with him.

In the fall of 1831, after saying goodbye to his son and three daughters who lodged at various homes around Palmyra, Missouri, Abraham traveled one hundred miles south to St. Louis where he boarded a steamboat for the three hundred and eighty mile trip upriver to where a new way of life awaited him.

Continue reading →

Blessing Sisters Story Part 2
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Blessing Sisters Story Part 2

This is a multi-post series about the Blessing Sisters. Anna Eliza Blessing Winney is my 3rd great grandmother. You can see all of the posts in the series here: Blessing Sister Stories

Restless Virginians

The Ohio-bound Blessings weren’t the only Virginians to feel the urge to move. Starting in mid-1825, when James Monroe’s presidency ended, Virginians were surprised by an unfamiliar status. “Four of the first five presidents were Virginians who guided the nation through its first three decades. But now, the political stature of Virginia declined on the national stage when no successors of ability emerged to replace the Founding Fathers.

The state had lost power in Congress because of population shifts. ‘What has become of our political rank and eminence in the Union?’ worried Benjamin Watkins Leigh. ‘Virginia has declined and is declining.’ (10) Continue reading →

Blessing Sisters Story Part 1
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Blessing Sisters Story Part 1

This is the first post in the Blessing Sisters story. Anna Eliza Blessing Winney is my direct ancestor. I’ve previously written posts about her son, Leonard James Winney and his wife, Elizabeth Wellman Winney.

The Blessing family in Virginia

When I first wrote this story in 2018, my limited knowledge of Abraham Blessing was that he ended up in Wisconsin Territory around 1830 with his young daughters, Elizabeth Jane and Anna Eliza, in tow, then abandoned them a few years later. I had the image of a cold man who was estranged from his parents and siblings and didn’t treat his daughters well.

There were very few records to find out more and stories passed down seemed to corroborate this image. Then, as they say, everything changed. In November 26, 2019, I was given access to a private collection of 6 original letters from Abraham Blessing to his family in Ohio, which has enriched this story considerably and shown me that my 4th great grandfather was the complete opposite of what I had imagined. Continue reading →

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Elizabeth Wellman Winney’s Journey from Orphan to Matriarch Part 3

1919 Winney

The Winney family at the Winney Ranch in Anaheim, CA, 1919. Back row L – R: Lou, Elizabeth, Leonard, Abe Front Row L – R: Annie, Mae, Alice, Marie, and Rena.

Elizabeth’s Story

Part 1 of Elizabeth Jane Wellman Winney’s story took Lizzie from the 1860 Census living with her mom, Mary, and sister, Josephine, to 1870 where she’s a 14 year old orphan living with her grandmother, Stephania DeViche Heuertz Gaus, and her family in Bloomington, WI.

In Part 2 of Lizzie’s journey we saw her and Leonard James Winney move from Wisconsin to Iowa around 1883 to have a baby and eventually get married.

Now we move into the next chapter of life for Lizzie, Leonard, and their growing family. Continue reading →

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Elizabeth Wellman Winney’s Journey from Orphan to Matriarch Part 2

Elizabeth’s Story

Elizabeth Wellman and Leonard James Winney family

Elizabeth & Leonard Winney Family

We left off in Part 1 of Elizabeth Jane Wellman Winney’s story in 1870 with Lizzie being 14 years old and living in Bloomington, WI with her grandmother, Stephania DeViche Heuertz Gaus; her step-grandfather; her aunt, Angeline Heuertz; and half-sister Katie Lorenz (Update 1/16/19: my original post said they were cousins. I later found family information that Katie is her half-sister and not her cousin).

Talk about a blended family! I don’t know how old she was when she first started living with them, but I wonder how Lizzie felt to be in this house with this hodgepodge collection of loosely related people. Continue reading →

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Elizabeth Wellman Winney’s Journey from Orphan to Matriarch Part 1

Elizabeth’s Story

Elizabeth Wellman Winney_1919_200px

Elizabeth Wellman Winney, Anaheim Ranch, 1919

Elizabeth Jane Wellman Winney is one of my family mysteries. She’s actually somehow entwined with another mystery for a Kathryn Lorenz that I’ll be writing about shortly.

Elizabeth, or Lizzie as she was known, was born on June 3, 1867 in Clayton County, IA. After months of searching I still I haven’t found any records of who her parents were, with one small exception – the 1870 Census.

According to that Census, taken on June 1, 1870, Lizzie is 3 years old and living in Guttenberg, Iowa with her 2 year old sister, Josephine Wellman, and her mother Mary Wellman. Mary is 28 years old and is listed as being born in Luxembourg.

Lizzie’s father isn’t living with them, and the 1870 Census doesn’t ask if someone is married or not, so I don’t know if Mary is till married to him, his first name, or what’s become of him. Continue reading →

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Hazel Jolly Sharp sets her own terms

How I’m related

Dorothy Hazel “Hazel” Jolly is the youngest sister of my dad’s mom, Myrtle Mae Jolly Hemenway. Their parents were William Coleman “Coley” Jolly and Martha Jane “Mattie” Brantley.

Hazel’s Story

Hazel Sharp

Hazel Jolly Sharp, May 2002

Hazel, born on March 14, 1914 in Eldorado, TX, was the youngest child. Her siblings were: William Melvin “Brother”; Allie Bell “Sister”; Erma; Coleman Clinton “Clint”; Clara Sue; Bill Arp “Arp”; Thelma Alta; Tony Drew “Jack”; Grady G.; Myrtle Mae; and Mattie Eloise “Lois”.

Like her sisters, she didn’t let the norms of the day or restrictions placed on women limit her. She traveled around the US and Canada. One of her achievements that she commented on often was visiting all 50 states.

Always moving forward

In one of the letters that Hazel wrote to me she said “I don’t think anyone can ever learn too much. When I was younger I was always taking some sort of a course.” Continue reading →

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Mabel Wallberg Winney was determined and devoted

A Quiet Strength

Many of the women in my family history that I’ve written about had outwardly visible strength. They voiced their opinions, they raised families in harsh and sparse conditions while settling the west, and they forged ahead when widowhood left them destitute.

Getting to know my great grandmother, Mabel Wallberg Winney, through her own words in diaries and letters, as well as letters her sister, Louise Wallberg Truxaw, wrote, I came to know that Mabel’s strength, while less visible, was no less intense.

Mabel’s Story

Mabel Winney #1Mabel Eleanor Wallberg was born on July 24, 1899 in Wenatchee, Douglas County, Washington to Edmund Ulrich and Elinore “Ella” Elizabeth (nee Owens) Wallberg.

Her older siblings were Ivor Owens and Castilla Louise (who went by Louise). She also had a younger sister, Edna Bernice.

In February 1912, when Mabel was 12 years old, her mother passed away in Seattle, WA. Mabel’s dad, brother and youngest sister moved back to San Juan Island, WA where they had a ranch.

In late 1911, Mabel’s older sister, Louise moved to Los Angeles to work in a hospital there. Around 1918, Mable moved down to live with her, where she worked at the front desk for Dr. Truxaw, Louise’s husband. Continue reading →

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Eleanor McGlothlen Kirkpatrick Newhouse early years

You can see the first post of this series here: Eleanor Jane McGlothlen Kirkpatrick Newhouse “Grandma Newhouse” was kind of a badass

To see all of her stories click this tag: Eleanor McGlothlen Kirkpatrick

Eleanor’s parents

Eleanor’s parents were Charles McGlothlen and Jane M. Davis. Eleanor seems to have come by her adventurous spirit naturally. Even before she was born, the family was seeking new frontiers. Continue reading →