Matrilineal Monday Alta Cheauvront Coleman

This picture is of Alta, John and family.

Matrilineal Monday is the female line of a family. I have the Cheuvront line back to France with Joseph coming over to the United States before the Revolutionary War.

Alta Cheuvront is my great great grandmother on my father's side of the family.

Alta Angeline was born to Lemuel and Mary A (Rouse) Cheuvront on 27 of May 1848 in Four Corners, Knox county, Ohio. She had four siblings may have been a fifth sibling an infant who died but not sure at this moment. Siblings were Sarah Ann, Lourinda, Thomas Jefferson, Catherine A.

Picture is of Lemuel, Mary, with Alta Angeline, Thomas Jefferson and Sarah Ann. Daughter Lourinda was not living at the time of picture being taken.

On the first of July in 1866 Alta married John Henry Coleman. To this marriage five children. Elic Lemuel (1868-1944), Mabel Jane (1872- 1946) my great grandmother, Elmer Coleman 1875 -????, Myrtle Alta (1876- 1939), Mary (1890-????).

The 1880 census has them living in Salt Creek, Cass county, Nebraska. Living with John and Alta are Mabel, Elmer, Myrtle and Mary.

Life was not easy during the 1880's in Nebraska. They had hard winters and storms.

According to Andreas History of the State of Nebraska Cass county.
The winter of 1856 was an unusually severe one, its rigors being felt more keenly in contrast with the pleasant winters preceding it. From 1871 to 1876 came the grasshopper scourge, devastating very much of the West. The severest loss from this was in 1875 with a loss of about one third of the whole crop.In 1871, a hail storm, traversing the northern tier of precincts, cut and damaged the grain badly. In 1875 a tornado swept the country from north to southeast, beating down the grain much of was already ripe.In the winter of 1880 - 1881 was a unusually hard one. The latter part and early spring having a lot of rain. This prevented the farmers from planting their corn until later and by then the ground was cold and damp and much of what they did plant did not grow.

The 1885 census has the family can be found in the suburbs of Hebron Village, Thayer county, Nebraska. Living with John and Alta are children Alexander, Mabel, Elmer, Myrtle and Mary.

The 1900 census has them living in Rockford, Garfield County, Nebraska. Living with them is daughter Mary.

1910 and 1920 census has Alta living in Taylor, Loup county , Nebraska with husband John. The 1920 census daughter Mabel Hall and granddaughter Pearl is living with them. Mabel's husband Arthur Hall had passed away in 1919.

Husband John Coleman passed away September 20, 1922.

1930 Alta is living in Sargent, Custer, Nebraska with daughter Mary Wirsic and son in law John and granddaughter Irma age 21.

Alta passes away 28th of September 1937 in Taylor, Loup county, Nebraska at the age of 89. She lived most of her life in Nebraska as the wife of John. John was a farmer and a carpenter.

Lots of dates known in Alta's life. Want I need to do is find where her and John are buried in Nebraska.

Matrilineal Monday Johanna Riordan Gallagher/Gallaher

Matrilineal Monday is the female line of a family. This line can be so much harder to research and ends in brick walls a lot of times.

Joanna Riordan Gallagher/Gallaher is that brick wall.

So many of my ancestors came from England and came over early in our country's history. So many of their stories have been researched and documented. They are recorded in stories of the towns they lived in.

But Joanna and her husband Patrick have to be my difficult family lines. They did not come to the United States till the period of the potato famine in the 1850's. I do not have much on them except the census reports of the time they lived in Wisconsin.

It is so much easier for me to work on the lines that are easy. I hope to attempt to find out more about them and their lives this year. I plan to find articles and books to read about Ireland and the potato famine. I better want to know what it was like for them to cross the ocean hoping for a better life

Because of joining http://www.ancestry.com/ I do know more than a year ago. I have access to census reports from my home computer.

I do know from the census that Joan was born in Ireland. From the little information I have from family members I learnt that her maiden name is Riordan.

There is a passenger list for a Johanna Riordan coming to the New York port arriving the 15th of October 1851. That she embarked from Cork and native country being Great Britain and traveled on the Lockwood. I believe this means her ship departed from Great Britain. She is listed as a work woman.
Now I can not be sure this is her but it is a possibility.

The 1860 census has a Johanna and Patrick Gallagher living in Annsville, Oneida, New York. Patrick is listed as 30 years and Johanna as 26.

By the 1870 census Joanna and Patrick are living in Hamburg, Vernon, Wisconsin with daughters Mary 4, Bridget 2 and son William 7 months. Daughter Katherine my great grandmother was born 1874.

Patrick passed away 3 January 1898 in Lacrosse county, Wisconsin leaving Johanna to reside with her daughter Mary and son William. Johanna lived until the 12 of July 1902. She and Patrick are buried La Crosse Wisconsin.

This is just facts and so much is not known of either her or Patrick. I do know they were Catholic and when my great grandmother got pregnant out of marriage and had my grandmother Grace in July,1893, they were not happy. Story within family is that they turned Katherine's picture to the wall.

In December, 1893 my great grandmother Katherine married another man, Appleton in La Crosse Wisconsin at a Methodist church. By 1900 they were living in Mora Minnesota.

My grandmother never talked about her mother and grandmother to me that I can remember.
I did not know that my grandmother was born out of wedlock until she had passed away and then it was told to me by my mother and aunt and uncle in a whisper.

At that time they showed me a picture of my grandmother's birth father. I am so glad that they shared this information with me. Being born out of wedlock in the 1890's was a much different situation than today.

I plan to travel to La Crosse Wisconsin this spring and find their graves and request there death certificates. Then again I just may have to request them earlier. I am hoping to find out their true birth dates from the death certificate or tombstone.

I hope to link up with other family members through Katherine's sister Bridget and see if they have any letters or stories to share. I have had brief contact but it has not come to any real information

Katherine's sister Mary never married and her brother William passed away accidentally in 1911. Question is was it really an accident but that is unknown and another story.

Thank you for visiting and please return again soon as I try to add depth to my great great grandmother Johanna Riordan Gallagher ..

.. Grace