May 8, 1997
—–Original Message—–
From: Anne Brown <73770.3402@CompuServe.COM>
Date: Wednesday, May 07, 1997 12:32 AM
Subject: Stay tuned…
Hi Bill!
Thanks for yr email of 4/21 re the Sweeneys. I am
travelling heavily on business and so have been slow in answering
you. Sorry ’bout that. Now I’m home, with records in
hand:
My kinfolk in the Thumb descend from Terrence (variously
spelled Terence, Terrance, etc.) Sweeney (b. Feb 1838, d. 26 Oct
1915) and his wife Susanna (also spelled variously Susannah,
etc.) Dew Sweeney. Her parents (my father’s line) were
pioneer settlers in Eramosa Township, near Guelph, Ontario.
They met and married in Guelph on Oct 19, 1866, and then
emigrated to Sheridan Township, MI. Susanna is buried in St.
Columbkill RC Cemetery, and I suspect he is as well. A
guest genealogist at the local society told me that there were a
large family of Sweeneys in the Guelph area of Ontario, but I
have no info back past Terrence.
Susanna and Terrence had 10 children: Martin (b. 13 Mar
1868), John (b. 29 Jun 1870), David Francis (b. 6 Apr 1873),
James Phillip (b. 11 May 1875), William Henry (b. 5 Nov 1877),
Matthew Bryan (b. 22 Aug 1880), Margaret Ellen (b. 4 Apr 1883),
Mary Elizabeth (b. 4 Apr 1883), Charlotte Jane (b. 26 Feb. 1885),
and Stephen Terrence (b. 4 Nov. 1887). I have additional
information on a number of these.
Each of these ten, bless them, seem to have had 10 or so
children, and thus we are wrestling here with something of a
geometric progression! I did some work there late last
summer and came away with the conclusion that if there’s a
Sweeney in the Thumb to whom I am not related, they must have
arrived within the past couple of weeks! In that process, I
talked with some neat people: some my parents’ generation,
some mine, and some of my children’s….always looking for those
who are excited about this family history quest. And, yes,
I do have information and portions of a tree from those
Sweeney descendents. The extant Sweeneys are, by the way,
pretty interested in tracing their Sweeney forebears, and I can’t
help them back past Terrence.
The Sweeney line is tangential to my own personal quest, which
is tracing the descendents of Susanna’s brothers, John and Jane
(Loree) Dew, and Martin and Harriet (Bennett) Dew, who settled in
Greenleaf Township and Elkland Township, respectively, at some
point shortly after Susanna and Terrence. One of the
“Hallelujah” moments of my search was to get hold of a
Township map of MI and to find that Sheridan, Greenleaf, and
Elkland Townships are contiguous!! And, yes, the properties
settled by Susanna, John, and Martin Dew were indeed in the area
where those three townships meet! Funny story about the
moment I made that marvelous connection: was in the DAR
Library (so Terribly Proper) in Washington, DC, and yes, I
actually yelled out “Bingo!” before I caught myself and
returned to the appropriate demeanor for that Library!
And frankly I’m doing a lot better at surfacing Sweeneys in
the Thumb than I am Dews! Any help you can give me on Dews
would be appreciated. Best of all, let me know if any of
these Sweeneys ring a bell with you. I am a bit puzzled at
your Sweeneys who were born in Sweden….was that a single family
migration from Ireland or was it a more general emigration?
At about the same time as I heard from you, I also got an
email from S. Sweeney (Truss1x@aol.com)
asking about Sweeneys in the Thumb. He’s tracing his
father’s line and says he’s stuck. I’ve sent him a similar
message, but maybe you guys need to talk as well.
I’ve been doing family history since I was a teenager (awhile
ago), and this electronic capability is totally wonderful for
putting a lot of us together! Let me know if any of this rings a
bell with you! Maybe we can yet make sense of all this!
Best,
Anne Dew Brown