I copied and pasted this email message below which gives a brief overview of some of the history gathered to that date re the Sullivans of Bird Road, Dunnville, Ontario, Canada. The email was sent to Mary Jane and Terry Mescall, Jerry Sullivan, Tim Sullivan. –Peter Sullivan
The following are some observations in preparation for a sibling gathering tomorrow, after
doing some additional work on the Sullivan and Flanagan histories. Not in any particular order,
and dates are always subject to revision:
1. The earliest Canadian census record I have seen is from 1861, and it lists in one
household great grandfather Daniel age 56, great grandmother Mary age 50, two sons
John 27 and James 24 (our grandfather) and one daughter Mary 15. Also listed are
Johanna (Hannah) 24 and Mary, 1. Hannah is John’s wife and Mary who is 1 is their
first born. According to those dates, John would have been born in 1834 and James in
1837.
2. We knew nothing about John and his whole family until Daniel’s will dated 1861 was
discovered in Paddy O’Neil’s trunk 5/12/12!
3. The 1891 census lists John as 58 (1833) and James as 49 (1842). The 1901 census lists
John as born in 1836 and James in 1841. The 1911 census lists John’s birth year as 1835,
James as not known but he was 70 which would give him a birth year of 1841.
4. If James’ birth was closer to 1841 than 1837, the info about Kilcummin, Ireland as
birthplace for James looks unlikely (but Wendy and I are still glad we visited there and
this might, of course, necessitate a return trip to Ireland with new data to explore!).
5. What also makes Kilcummin less likely is that I was able to zoom in on the almost
illegible surname of our great grandmother in the will, and rather than looking
like ‘Shanihan’, it now looks closer to ‘Shaunessy’.
6. Today, looking at the will again with the zoom feature, I noticed that Daniel lists his
executors as Patrick Sullivan and Bartholomew ______looks very much like Shaunessy!
So—might this have been a brother of Daniel’s and a brother of his wife?
7. The 1891 census clearly indicates that as of that date James could not read nor write,
though Sarah could write and that John and Hannah could both read and write. They
also had an 18 year old employee at the farm who was born in England, by the name of
John Sloan.
8. Re James, 1848 is listed on one census report as the date of immigration and another
census report lists 1847. (Principal years of the Famine were 1845-1850 and 1847
was the worst year to enter via Quebec). John may have had a later immigration date,
possibly 1853, but it is not clear if that meant he arrived later or just did the paper work
that year.
9. The most recent Canadian census is 1911, William J Sullivan was 14, Patrick 10, and their
uncle John, 76, living with them, along with John’s youngest son John J. 30 and Alice Fry,
listed as a granddaughter, then 27 and I believe born in NYS.
10. Also born in NYS is Edward and Mary Flanagan’s oldest son John born in 1851. (Edward
and Mary Flanagan are the parents of Sarah Flanagan, our grandmother and James’
wife). Would this mean that the Flanagan’s may have had New York as a port of entry
rather than Quebec, also came over later than Daniel Sullivan?
The mystery quest continues. Peter