Family history has long been an interest of mine. I've posted many blogs about family connections and how we are related on both sides of my immediate family as well as grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great etc. etc. I find it totally fascinating, but then, if we go back far enough.....
My great-great-grandparents, Catherine McDonnaugh and William Lynam, were born in Ireland. Separately they both arrived and lived in Ripon, WI. Catherine in 1832 and William much earlier if family lore is correct. They met and were married in Ripon, Wisconsin on April 19, 1856. (Soon to be 170 years ago.) They moved to Ohio and lived there until coming to Adams County Iowa in 1878 settling north of Brooks.
Great-great-grandfather George W. Gravett was born in Clark County in 1842. His wife, Malinda Jane Cecil, was born in Indiana. I do not have their family trees back to any European countries. George and Malinda were married January 1, 1863 also in Ripon, WI. Their daughter Nancy Gravett married Barney Lynam and had four children including my grandpa George Lynam.
So how did it happen that these Lynam ancestors met and married in Ripon, WI? Was it the Las Vegas of the day in the 1800's? As an aside, or footnote if you will, I also learned that the Republican party got its start in Ripon in 1854 when the Whig and Free Soil parties dissolved and formed the new 'Republican' party electing as their first president, Abraham Lincoln.
Back to the family history and moving one state to the west and almost parallel to Ripon is Austin, MN where on February 25, 1870, my great-great-grandmother, Agnes Hull married John Richardson. Their only child, Flora Viola Richardson, became my great-grandmother, married to Lemuel Duncan (May 25, 1889) and parents of my grandmother Bessie married to George Lynam (November 15, 1914).
It boggled my mind when my son-in-law Ken became interested in family history and learned that he was a ninth cousin of ..... Flora Viola Richardson! As I said, if we go back far enough.....
(Ken was born and grew up in Minnesota though he and Kari now live in Oregon.)
