Tag: James Decalvin Batchelor

Family Stories and Surprising Ways New Documentation Can Confirm Them: The Story of Robert Allen Sumrall and Margaret and Catherine Ryan

August 6, 2024

Or, Subtitled: “May her soul rest in peis.” This posting tells a story. It tells a story about a story, one told to me in my formative years. It also tells a story about how sudden genealogical surprises can either confirm or disprove our long-cherished family traditions. So that we do well to keep ourselves … More Family Stories and Surprising Ways New Documentation Can Confirm Them: The Story of Robert Allen Sumrall and Margaret and Catherine Ryan

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

March 25, 2018

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)