The Other John Tully

 

If I could have made the title of this post clearer, I would have labeled it "The Other Other John Tully." You see, like Margaret, John seems to be a favorite name in my husband's Tully family—and that of his Tully DNA match, as well.

I always knew there was another John Tully in my husband's family. The sources for this information, though, were sketchy: oral reports and written remembrances of an unexplained other relative claiming that same name. Snippets from ephemera saved from weddings celebrated a century ago showed signs of a "Jack" Tully baptised with that formal name John, somehow related to our line. A diary written by a teenaged cousin of my husband's paternal grandmother spoke of another John Tully besides the one in our direct line. Somehow, no matter how many stories our older relatives shared, no one could quite place who that other John Tully might have been.

As it turns out, there may have been more than one John Tully our family was recalling. One that I found by research was John, son of Patrick, son of our Denis. Family had recalled another John Tully who lived not far from Chicago in Indiana, and this John, born in Canada in 1868, filled that description in his later years, dying in Hammond, Indiana, in 1928. His son—also named John but going by the nickname Jack—may have been the one mentioned in wedding recollections.

There is, of course, a reason I am speaking of Tullys with the given name of John. Our DNA match's brick wall ancestor, also named Dennis, happened to have a son named John. Likewise, our own direct line featured a son of Denis named John. Since our Denis was the older of the two men we are comparing, it is no surprise to see that his son John was born in 1842. The younger Dennis, our DNA match's ancestor, welcomed his second son John, into his Canadian home in Warwick, Lambton County, Ontario, in 1866.

While the other Dennis Tully's son John in no way could have been the John Tully remembered by our Tully relatives, nevertheless, it may be helpful to trace this other John's family history to see if any clues emerge. Before we do that, though, we do need to pay attention to one more caution. We'll discuss that one warning sign tomorrow.