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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