One More Line

In tracing the descendants from a recently-discovered additional branch of our Kelly line in Lafayette, Indiana, I still have one more child of Bridget Kelly Creahan to follow up on.

That is no small task.

First comes determining the name of this Creahan daughter’s husband, so that in their era of invisible women, I can still assure myself I’m tracing the right person.

We uncovered our first clue as to this daughter’s married name and whereabouts when I located her step-mother’s 1917 obituary. If you remember when I received the Monroe County Public Library’s email with the newspaper clipping regarding Anna Creahan, I discovered this missing daughter was referred to as “Mrs. Julia Sullivan” and that her residence was far removed from her native Lafayette, Indiana.

She is survived by the following step children: John Creahan, of this city; Mrs. Ella Fulk, of Bloomington; Mrs. Julia Sullivan, of Denver, and Mrs. John P. Quinlisk, of this city.

Trying to find a Julia Sullivan in Denver, Colorado, was not working for me—perhaps now you realize why I didn’t write about these Creahan children in birth order, eh? I did locate a Julia Sullivan, but she lived in Colorado Springs, not Denver. While the trip between the two cities today is an easy drive on the interstate—we’ve done that for years, flying in to visit Stevens relatives in the Springs—it would have been an arduous journey back in the time when Anna’s obituary was written. I doubted that was our Julia Sullivan.

Thankfully, while searching through all the material I could find on the other Creahan children, a simple line in Anna’s husband’s obituary made all the difference. Written at Michael Creahan’s passing nearly two years prior, it bridged just the right span of time to present Julia’s “proper” married name. Still listed as a resident of Denver, Julia was this time noted to be “Mrs. Thomas Sullivan.”

While a surname like Sullivan does not present an easy task when it comes to family history research, at least the ability to match the husband’s given name with that of his wife allows us a bit of an edge. But—I warn you—it still isn’t much.

From the front page of The Bloomington Evening World on Monday, May 17, 1915:

The death of Michael Creahan occurred at Lafayette Saturday caused by paralysis and a complication of diseases. The deceased was 88 years old and came to this country 68 years ago from Limerick, Ireland at the age of 20. He engaged in the contracting business most of his active life. All of his life in this country was spent in Lafayette with the exception of ten years during which he resided at New Orleans. His fatal illness was about of a month’s duration although he had been failing for some time. The children are Mrs. Ella Fulk of this city who was at his bedside at the time of his last moments, Mrs. Thomas Sullivan of Denver, Col., and Mrs. John Quinlish, of Lafayette. Lyman Fulk of this city, a grandson of the deceased is in Lafayette to attend the funeral which will be held at the St. Ann’s church tomorrow morning at nine o’clock, of which Mr. Creahan was a devoted member.