Denniston and Stewart

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:49 am

they are the earliest known ancestors in this branch of the tree.

William G. (Greer?) Denniston b. abt 1806 of Slippery Rock,Pennsylvania
m. 25 Dec 1828 place unknown, assume Slippery Rock
Jane C. Stewart b. abt 1807 New Jersey.
children;
Sarah 1830-1831
Andrew G. 1831-1892 m. Susannah Reed
John C. 1833-1858
Martha R. 1835-1914 m. Cyrus Charles D. Emery
James Stewart 1837-1901 Nancy Winne Moak
Thomas Greer 1839-1917 Amanda Mulvina Reed
William J. 1841-1853
Mary Amelia 1845-?

we would love to find thier ancestry, and where they came from overseas.

Post by **SarahND** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 2:52 pm

Hi Topaz and welcome.

Is John W Stewart born about 1794 in New Jersey and living in Slippery Rock, Butler County, Pennsylvania in 1850 a brother of Jane's? You have my sympathies looking for Stewarts that early on. I have one who appears in Maryland in about 1762 and I have still not found where he came from.

Ah, but I see that William & Jane and their family are in North Slippery Rock, which is actually in Lawrence County . Must be just over the county line, as I see they are adjacent. And then the Greer Denniston in Mercer County, also adjacent, is possibly a brother of William's?

I don't see them offhand, but do you know if either William or Jane lived until 1880? It would be helpful to see where they say their parents were born. If the Greer Denniston above is indeed William's brother, then it may be significant that he says in 1880 that his father was born in Ireland.

All the best,
Sarah

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:46 am

a second set of eyes is always a boon, Sarah, thank you! sometimes I'm too close to the subject to see the fairly obvious.
I'll look more closely at the interesting clues you've found and see if and how they fit.
sadly, William died in 1851, I believe in Slippery Rock, leaving us far short of data regarding him and his ancestry. Jane lived to 1863 in Jackson Co., Iowa. I don't know why she took her family to Iowa (or did one of her oldest sons take her to Iowa and the rest of the family decided to come as well? we don't know. so, again, we are left without information on her ancestry as well. funny, at the moment I can't find my source for her death. I'm sure I have her obit...somewhere. it should be in the records notebook but might be in the family history notebook. I'll dig deeper.

I have no proof, but I'm pretty sure Greer is related to William. I've tried to connect them in the past without luck. maybe now there's something new, it's been a while.

interesting about Greer saying his father was in Ireland. I did a name search of Denniston at SP and received quite a few hits. I've always thought it was a Scots name. well, we know they travelled back and forth.

Nell

SarahND wrote:Hi Topaz and welcome.

Is John W Stewart born about 1794 in New Jersey and living in Slippery Rock, Butler County, Pennsylvania in 1850 a brother of Jane's? You have my sympathies looking for Stewarts that early on. I have one who appears in Maryland in about 1762 and I have still not found where he came from.

Ah, but I see that William & Jane and their family are in North Slippery Rock, which is actually in Lawrence County . Must be just over the county line, as I see they are adjacent. And then the Greer Denniston in Mercer County, also adjacent, is possibly a brother of William's?

I don't see them offhand, but do you know if either William or Jane lived until 1880? It would be helpful to see where they say their parents were born. If the Greer Denniston above is indeed William's brother, then it may be significant that he says in 1880 that his father was born in Ireland.

All the best,
Sarah

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:38 am

sadly, no, he isn't William's brother-sadly because Greer's siblings and parents are available at Ancestry's Family Trees. Greer's brother William was born in 1817. They could well be close cousins, though.

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:48 am

has no sister Jane. he also is at Ancestry's Family Trees. again, he might be a cousin.

LesleyB · Post by **LesleyB** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:09 am

Hi Topaz

sadly, no, he isn't William's brother-sadly because Greer's siblings and parents are available at Ancestry's Family Trees.

Remember that the family trees on Ancestry are user submitted, and as such they are a mixed bag: some well researched, others not so. I recently came across a tree on there mentioning some of the people in my tree, and it was a right muddle - the wrong kids attributed to parents, families all mixed up (lots if them have the same names, so it is easy to do if you are not "on the ball" and only have half the picture, and are not familiar with the OPRs) There are a good number of us on TS have had similar experiences.

If the person whose tree is displayed has openly listed their sources and you can check those, then fair enough, you can discount the chap as William's brother, but otherwise, if you know what your sources are, and even though we all make mistakes, and sometimes we can't see the wood for the trees, trust your own tree first and be wary of believing other trees !

Best wishes
Lesley

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:52 pm

I know. I've seen some real messes, and there are errors in my own tree that I have to clean up. (try researching common name ancestors in Ontario Canada and you'll see how easy it is to get the wrong John Schaefer or Jacob Haus/House.) at least another researcher has let me know my error.
but these two trees were good ones, full dates and places for children, no big jumps in years between children, everything in order. just lucky, I guess.

Post by **SarahND** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 9:24 pm

Hi Topaz,
Have you tried looking in old county histories? There appear to be many mentions of Dennistons in Mercer County, Lawrence County, Butler County, etc. Since these were all basically the same place, just the name changed over the years, it seems likely these are your family.

I just skimmed them, but one of the histories talks about 5 Denniston brothers who were early settlers in the area: Andrew, James, William, George and Johnson, of one family; and three brothers, Andrew, Alexander and William, and four sisters of another. These would all have been of an age to be your William's father.

I'm assuming from some of your posts that you have access to Ancestry. If so, (and if you haven't done this already) by all means read through the county histories!

Good luck!
Sarah

topaz · Post by **topaz** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 1:10 am

thanks, a distant cousin uncovered those stories before they were put on the 'net and shared them with us, but we haven't been able to connect William to them. think Greer does connect to one of them but I would have to re-read them.
yes, I have access to Ancestry-only thing going where I live! anyway, I should check back, see if there's anything new listed there and recheck Google books while I'm at it.
always good to be reminded of these things. sometimes a re-read brings new things to light.

TalkingScot.com

Denniston and Stewart

Denniston and Stewart

Thank you!

Greer

John W. Stewart

Thank you