Gravestone #6 John and Annette Fink

Annette (nee Ewing) and John Franklin Fink, my third great grandparents on the Fink side. Dixon Run Cemetery, Gallia County, Ohio.

Annette's the daughter of Mary from the previous post.

This cemetery was probably the most difficult to get to -- up a narrow winding guardrail-less 'road' at the top of hill. Next time, we park at the bottom and walk up.

Gravestone #5 Mary White Ewing

Mary (nee White) Ewing, my 4th great grandmother on the Fink-Ewing line and wife of William Ewing. She's buried in Franklin Cemetery in Gallia County, Ohio.

If I remember correctly, her grave is towards the front, on the left side of the cemetery.

Close us of her gravestone.

My Irish Ancestry

I'm taking a break from my Fearless Females posts to celebrate my Irish heritage in honor of St. Patrick's Day.

First up, the Forkner side of the family and the Hollingsworths. They were Quakers.

Robert or Valentine Hollingsworth was born in England in 1547 but died in Ireland between 1599 and 1601. He may have been a settler. According to Wikipedia, he was in an English militia and went to Ireland as a planter for the Ulster plantation. His wife, Joan Parker, was born in Ireland and their son Henry Hollingsworth was born there as well, sometime in the 1580s. Henry died in Ireland, probably in or around 1675. The family lived in Ballyvickcrannel in the Parish of Segoe, County Armagh.

Henry married Katherine Cornish, who was born in 1590/1602 in County Armagh, Ireland. She died there in 1675. She was the daughter of Henry Cornish, the High Sheriff, and his wife. Henry Cornish was born in Ireland probably around 1576, but died in London.

Henry and Katherine had a son, Valentine Hollingsworth Sr. He was born in County Armag in 1632 and married in 1655 to Ann Ree. He married again in 1672 to Ann Calvert. The first marriage took place either in Tanderagee or Lurgan, County Armagh; the second in Drumgor. In Oct of 1682, he immigrated to America on the "Antelope" and died in 1710 or 1711 in Newark, New Castle County, Delaware. He's buried at the Friends Burying Ground, New Ark Monthly Meeting, New Castle Co, Newark DE.

Ann Ree was born about 1628 in Tanderagee, Parish of Ballymore, Armagh County, Ireland and died in 1671 in Ballyvickcrannell, Seagoe, County Armagh, Ireland. She was buried 1671 in Friends Burial Ground, Moyraverty, Co Armagh, Ireland. She was the daughter of Nicholas Ree

Nicholas Ree was born in the late 1570s in Ireland and was Christened 2 Oct 1597 in Tandergee, County Armagh, Ireland. He married and died in 1631 or 1641, possibly killed in an Irish rebellion.

Valentine and Ann had a son, Thomas Hollingsworth, born in 1661 in Ballyvickcrannell, Seagoe, County Armagh, Ireland. He immigrated in 1682 (presumably with his father and stepmother) and married in Pennsylvania in 1692 to Grace Cooke, who's father was born in Ireland. He died in 1727 in New Castle County, PA (now DE) and was buried at the Friends’ Burying Ground, Centre Meeting, Chester Co. PA.

From there, the Hollingsworths went to the Carolinas, Ohio and finally to Indiana where Daisy Hollingsworth married Hadley Clifford.

My ancestor James Savage (Fink side of the family, they married into the Braley line) was born in Ireland in 1673 and died in Maine around 1745. He's the last of the Savages I have in my research so I don't know anymore about him or his family.

Also in the Fink line, my research shows that the Ewings originally came from Ireland as well. William Ewing was born in Londonderry about 1690 and his son James or Charles was born there as well in 1720. He immigrated to America, married in Virginia in 1740/41 and died in 1800/01 in what is now West Virginia. His son would be Swago Bill who was mentioned in my first Fearless Females post which was about his wife. Swago Bill's mother was Margaret Sargeant and she was also born in Ireland.

Fearless Females March 1 - Favorite Female Ancestor

A blog I just found today (and started following of course) called The Accidental Genealogist has 31 prompts posted for the month of March to explore and share your female ancestors. Since this is right up my alley, I decided to start posting them. I have some catching up to do so expect to be deluged over the next few days til I get caught up.

March 1 Prompt — Do you have a favorite female ancestor? One you are drawn to or want to learn more about? Write down some key facts you have already learned or what you would like to learn and outline your goals and potential sources you plan to check.

This is a hard choice, because I’m fascinated by so many of my ancestors. Elizabeth Curtis on my father's side is one of my favorites (the first white woman in Madison County, IN, but she's already been explored in an earlier post). My mother suggested my 6^th great grandmother, Mary Ewing, born McNeil, who was born in Virginia, lived in Ohio and Iowa and died in Missouri. Talk about a pioneer!

Mary was born on December 25, 1771 in what is now West Virginia, to Thomas McNeil and his wife Mary Hughes. On November 16, 1785, she wed William Ewing, nicknamed ‘Swago Bill’. Mary was a month shy of being fourteen and Swago Bill was twenty nine. At the age of fifteen, Mary was the mother of Elizabeth and at sixteen another child came, Thomas. Before she was nineteen, she was taking care of three young children and another came before she was twenty one. By the age of thirty eight, Mary had twelve children in the space of twenty two years, all of whom were still living. Mary and Swago Bill’s children were: Elizabeth, Thomas, Jonathan, William II, James, John, Sarah Jane, Enoch, Jacob, Abraham McNeil, George and Andrew. I am descended from William II Ewing.

In 1810, Mary and Swago Bill left their home in the mountains of Virginia and moved to the forests of Gallia County, Ohio, where Ewington now stands. They had ten children under and two children over the age of majority in tow. The Ewing wagon train traveled 160 miles to Ohio and consisted of three covered wagons, twelve horses and several head of sheep, swine and cows. They carried provisions for the trip as well as equipment and tools they would need to build a new home. At Point Pleasant, they built rafts and made several trips across the Ohio River to get all of their belongings across and then traveled a further 20 miles north to their destination. By the spring of 1812, after much work to clear the forest, the family’s new home was ready – two stories made of hewn logs and with a stone chimney.

Twelve years later, in 1822, Swago Bill died, leaving Mary a widow at fifty one and their youngest child Andrew fatherless at the age of thirteen. She lived in their house in Ewington until 1839, when Andrew married and bought property in Wilkesville Township, in what is now Vinton County. In 1853, she left with Andrew for the west. She was in her early 80s, but she would not be dissuaded from going. After all, she’d married a backwoodsman twice her age and already been a pioneer from Virginia to Ohio, what was another trip? They first settled in Iowa for a few years, then moved to Missouri. Mary died there near Ravanna in 1858.

Resources - A lot of research but these two website were particularly valuable:

http://www.oocities.org/genealogyiskewl/pafn25.htm

http://www.familyorigins.com/users/e/w/i/Richard-D-Ewing/FAMO3-0001/d61.htm

I’d like to know where the family land was, unfortunately I have no idea how to research that. I feel like I know Mary pretty well though. She strikes me as a stubborn little thing who knew what she wanted and did it. You have to admire a woman who married a man twice her age when she wasn’t even fourteen yet and then traveled with him to a new frontier. And you have to admire even more a woman who traveled with her son to another new frontier when she was in her eighties. She definitely qualifies as a fearless female.