My great grandfather Alexander John Swasey (1853-1913) had 4 sisters born before he was. They were born when his parents lived in St. Augustine FL during the times it became the state of Florida. But just before G-Grandpa Alex was born, they apparently moved back to Charleston SC. His mother had been born in Charleston, and there were other Zylstras living there (looking at census reports before and after the Civil War.)
So the new information last week was that his older sister Mariann (Mamie) Swasey Gresham (1849-aft.1883) had married, and had children. I haven't been able to find any indication that his other 3 older sisters even lived past childhood.
Mamie Swasey was 17 when her father Captain Alexander Swasey (1812-1866) died in Charleston SC. He had spent virtually the whole of the Civil War in prison in Fort Warren in Boston Harbor, only to return home in 1865 and die of consumption in 1866. His grave is somewhere with another family, unmarked. My cousin visited Charleston and tried to find it a few years ago.
Now I've recently learned of Great Great Aunt Mamie married in June of 1869 to Joseph Gresham (1844-1895). But before she married, another document shows that she returned to the US from Panama on 15 Jun 1868 when she was 18. The manifest show another female listed just before her name, and I would think it unlikely that she would travel alone to Panama and back. I think her friend's name was Teresa J S Lindsey (27) and there was another female named Mary Lindsey (19) as well. The ship Rising Star brought these passengers into New York. Perhaps there was some missionary work they were involved with...I'm open to suggestions.
GG Aunt Mamie married Joseph Gresham in Charleston SC. But he was from Pontotoc, Mississippi, and they set up their home in State Line, George County (or Green County) MS. His family included at least one member who fought in the American Revolution, so there are DAR documents about them. The Daughters of the American Revolution are good at keeping records.
State Line MS is on a railroad line, and GG Uncle Joseph Gresham in the 1870 census is listed as a clerk in a sawmill, which was probably owned by his father. Joseph and Mary (Mamie) Gresham were living with his father, John Gresham at that census, and Mary must have been expecting their first son (Joseph Jr.) who was born in June 1870.
They had 7 children, one of whom died in infancy. There were 5 sons and 2 daughters in their family. And their son, George Leon, who became a physician, lived until 1962.
In 1885 Joseph Gresham received forty acres of land from Pres. Grover Cleveland, in Washington County AL. I wonder what service he had provided to the US government. He was a CSA veteran, having enlisted in Company K, Mississippi 1st Cavalry Regiment as a private.
The 1880 Census for Washington County AL has his occupation listed as a merchant. At that census Mary Gresham was 30 years old, with her father having been born in Rhode Island. (Capt. Alexander G. Swasey.)
Mamie gave birth to her last son, Nov. 9, 1883. He lived till 1935, but we have no further records of Great Great Aunt Mamie Swasey Gresham. So we can only say she died after 1883.
Her husband, Joseph, died in 1895 in Pascagoula, Jackson County, Mississippi, and he was buried in State Line, MS.
I am a big fan of another Grisham, namely the novelist John Grisham. A lot of his books are centered around Mississippi and Alabama, so I was thinking we might have distant cousin status. But it really doesn't matter, even though he grew up in that area. The Firm, and Pelican Brief are 2 of my favorites which were made into movies.
Sharing on Sepia Saturday this week.
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