Do You Know This Man?

Nancy and I have been working on finding records to confirm the information we've been given from all our various sources.  Today we found Lucius Arthur Sullivan's birth registration.  Uncle Lu is my mom's oldest brother and first child of Marie J (Bednorz) & William Augustine Sullivan.  Look at what we found:

Birth Registration for Lucius Sullivan

Look at who the father is: Arthur O. Sullivan.  Well, now, I'm pretty sure that Grandma wasn't sleeping with a different Sullivan so soon after getting married.  So it looks like Grandpa Sullivan wasn't too worried about using his legal name on his son's birth record.  Was he thinking he might someday want to deny his paternity of Lu?  (Just kidding)  And what about the O?  A bit of a flourish, don't you think?

Of course, this provides support for the stories we've heard that Grandma always called her husband Arthur - I can see why.  And Lucius' middle name certainly is Arthur as Aunt Tiny (real name Dorothy) asserts in her memoir I referenced yesterday.

Nancy and I are trying to figure out how Grandma and Grandpa met.  We know that in 1905, William A is living in Marshfield WI.  That was not easy to confirm. It turns out you would have to search for Augustine in that census as Grandpa is not listed as William at all.  But he is living at home with his parents Michael (car repairer) and Catherine, his sister Mary (a dressmaker) and brother David (still in school).

We know that Marie is living in Marysville, Wright County MN with her family.  They moved to a farm here shortly after the 1900 Census was taken where they were listed as farm laborers in Buffalo Township, Cass County, North Dakota.  Her dad lists himself as a farmer in the Minnesota 1905 census.  John is no longer at home, but all the others are: Henry, Frances, Marie, Paul and Gertrude.  (You can't search for Marie Sullivan in this census - her name just won't come up.  It turns out that the indexer for this census transcribed Marie's name as Mance)

We also know that in the 1910 US Census, neither Marie nor William are living with their families.  But searches of Minneapolis areas have yet to turn up either or both of these characters.  We know they married in 1914 in Minneapolis, so it is likely they are in that area.  More research needs to be done.  Stay tuned - or better yet, join in.  Let us know what you can find, or what you might have hidden in your own family archives.

Lucius Arthur Sullivan

Rumor has it that Marie is a dressmaker working in the Minneapolis area.  We know that Augie (Augustine, Bill, Arthur, William A.) is now in the lumber industry as he was listed as a lumber scaler in the 1905 Wisconsin State census. Simple searches don't turn up the names William A Sullivan or Marie Bednorz in either Wisconsin or Minnesota, but I feel sure they're hiding out somewhere in one of these states.  As we've learned, names can get messed up as indexers transcribe handwritten documents.  More patience will be needed to close this gap.


But thanks to you, Uncle Lu, we have confirmed one of our Sullivan mysteries!  We love you.