I've been lurking for a while. I started studying geneology more than 20
years ago as part of a school project, but didn't do much again until about
three years ago. Our older child, Matthew age 10, is very interested in
geneology, so we are working together to fill in the huge-big family
tree. One of my grandmothers has done a lot, and my husband's cousin Jack
Stidham has tracked that family down to its origins in North America. So
we are left to fill in the gaps.
I am descended from William O Catlett who first shows up in Lexington,
McLean County, Illinois. In the 1850 census his place of birth was listed
as Virginia. He married twice: In 1849 Elizabeth G. Whitelock who had two
children, Thomas G Catlett born 1850 (though on the 1850 census he is given
as Thomas G Whitelock) and Amelia Evelyn called "Eva" my ancestress born
1852. Elizabeth died in childbirth I think. In 1855 William married Alice
C Mahan, daughter of the abolitionist John Bennington Mahan. Catletts,
Whitelocks and Mahans were all neighbors in the 1850 and 1860
censuses. Alice and William had several children: Edward W, Eva Viola,
Horace S and Mary E. I know the family moved to Iowa, where William died
in 1886. He had been a Union soldier in the Civil War, and also apparently
was part of the guard when Lincoln's body went from Chicago to
Springfield. His wife Alice and son Edward are listed on the Civil War
pension registration card.
My Eva married John Blaine Wright and moved to Minnesota and Canada and
then Minnesota (he was a carpenter, I think they followed the work). She
died in Chico, California in 1912, just a few days before her husband died
in Minnesota. I think she was in California to help her son Frank Wright
and daughter in law Eva Granville, and other son, Fred C Wright and his
wife Margaret Murphy (who lived in nearby Susanville).
WHAT I HOPE TO LEARN: Where did William O Catlett come from? Why was he
in Illinois? He was an abolitionist, I am pretty sure. Did any of his
brothers/sisters accompany him to Illinois? Who were his parents...?
Anyway, hello!
Kathleen Dare Stidham