Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (6)

As I ended my last posting about the Civil War pension claims filed by Patrick Ryan and his widow Delilah Rinehart Ryan in Grant County, Arkansas, I mentioned that one of the threads tying together the network of families represented in these combined pension files is that men from several of these families were Union … More Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (6)

Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (3)

And now to that missing eye: though I have not spelled this out, it has probably become obvious to you if you’ve read the first two installments in this series that it is, in part, an extended essay about the importance of family stories in genealogical research. It’s a foray into understanding how family stories … More Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (3)

Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (1)

I’ve just shared postings tracing all I’ve been able to discover about an elusive Ulster Scots ancestor, David Dinsmore, who came from Ireland to South Carolina with his wife Margaret not long before the Revolution, took the British side during that war, and found himself exiled to Nova Scotia, leaving his wife and children behind … More Prob. Died Young, Or How Pat Ryan Lost His Eye (As a Union Soldier) (1)