Week 5: Challenge (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2025 Version)

The theme for Week 5 is “Challenge.” Which ancestor has been challenging to research? What ancestor faced an enormous challenge? Click hereto view all of the 2025 prompts.

I have been researching my family genealogy for over 40 years. Various ancestors over the years have been challenging. Sometimes break throughs come out of the woodwork.

For example: Currently I am researching the descendants of my 3^rd great grandparents, Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane. Jane is my challenging ancestor because as a woman, her maiden name and thus parents are a challenge to find. Even though I have found items that state her surname is possibly Burns, I haven’t been able to figure out who her parents are, or if she even has siblings.

In February of 2023 one of my DNA Matches reached out to me about Ellen Scott and Bartholomew Kernan line. My DNA match, was trying to figure out the parents of Ellen Scott.

Thus, I looked at our shared matches and found that Bartholomew’s parents were most likely Bartholomeus Kernan and Mary Byrne. Suddenly, I was noticing a few more matches whose trees went back to Bart and Mary. I found that Bart was living in a small community in Wisconsin called Lost Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin. I am very familiar with this small community, because I had lots of relatives who lived and died there. In fact, this is where Jane is buried.

I surmised, that our DNA match wasn’t through Ellen Scott but through her husband Bartholomew Kernan. At the time of this message, I had just started my descendant project and found a family tree that referenced a small booklet titled “Some Goodwin and Kieffe Families of New York, Wisconsin & Nebraska” which was complied by William R and Helen (Kral) Houk in July 1997. In this booklet Jane’s will was referenced. The executor of her will was Edward Kernan since her sons had preceded her in death. I also found a marriage record for Thomas Kernan whose parents are listed as Bartholomew Kernan and Mary Burn. Therefore, I found Mary’s maiden name listed as Burn and Byrne. Finally, I found that Thomas and Jane were witnesses to Bart and Mary’s son Edward Kernan’s wedding, the same Edward who is the executor to Jane’s will.

This led me to making a hypothesis that Mary Burn/Byrne and Jane Burns may be sisters. They are the correct age to be sisters, I have lots of DNA matches to Mary’s descendants and their relationship to me would fit this hypothesis.

Since that original message from my DNA Match, I found several trees with parents for Mary Byrne. So now I have a new challenge to determine if Mary is actually Jane’s sister, are Mary’s parents really her parents, do I have any other DNA matches through another siblings of Jane.

In genealogy, our challenges never end, but it’s these challenges that are the driving force for my genealogy.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 41: Most (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2024 version)

The theme for Week 41 is "Most." Like last week, this theme can go countless directions! Most number of marriages, most children, "most likely to succeed." Let your imagination run wild! Click here to find out about all of the 2024 prompts.

As genealogists, I think we have those relatives who are the MOST involved to research. I could put MOST in front of a lot of relatives, MOST difficult, MOST confusing, MOST frustrating, MOST hidden, etc… I think you get the idea.

Anyway, I have been proofing a Descendant Book that I am creating on my 3rd great grandparents, Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane Burns. I have done my first pass through of research, where I start with my 3rd great grandparents and research all their children, then starting with the oldest child, research their children, starting with their oldest child I repeat the process all the way done the line before moving to the next child and working up and down the lines until I think I have found everyone I can find.

I then generated a first draft of the book, using Family Book Creator from my software package of Family Tree Maker. What I am looking for, besides spelling errors, are huge gaps in my research. Missing vital information such as birth and if appropriate death information. I look for marriage information if they were married and divorce information if they remarried and I am missing that information. I also make sure that someone didn’t have any offspring by locating their obituaries if available.  I like to record their Find a Grave record too, thus if they died or probably died (based on birth date) I look for the record.

I am only down to the 3rd generation of a 7-generation book. I was looking at one of my relatives, Lester Mulvaney who was born in 1901 and died in 1982. I had three children for him and one died as an infant and then he had two other daughters. One daughter, Mia Mae Mulvaney died in 1967 and based on her obituary, I knew she had four children, three daughters and one son. Her husband was a Luther Dickerson who I had no information on. Thus my big red flag to do more research.

Based on Mia Mae’s obituary, she died in Marshall, Missouri. Thus, using Ancestry, I decided to look for a Luther Dickerson in Missouri, (fingers were crossed that it wasn’t a too common of a name). The following is what I found and I recorded it in my software program as private research notes:

• Found a Luther Dickerson born 9 Jul 1913 Missouri, died: 29 Jun 1995 Yuba California
• He married Alva Goodwin on 11 May 1932 in Cole Camp, Benton, Missouri, USA (both were under 21 years of age). Dora Sizemore mother of Luther Dickerson 
• 1933, April 26 Prescott, Yavapai County; Arizona - Zona Lee Dickerson birth
• Newspaper article: 17-year-old Mother shoots self, lives | Prescott, Aug 11 (1934) Mrs. Alva Goodwin Dickerson, 17 wife of Luther Dickerson, 22 and mother of three-year-old Zona Lee Dickerson, was in Mercy Hospital tonight, the victim, officers said, of a self-inflected bullet wound. The shooting occurred on the ranch of James E Goodwin, her father, 40 miles from Prescott in the Williamson valley. The young wife shot herself in the left side above her heart with a small rifle, investigators said. At the hospital physicians declared there was no immediate danger. Officers said she gave no motive for her act. The Dickersons were married in Missouri when the girl was only 13 years old.
• 1935, Jun 27 Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona - Fannie Corrine Dickerson birth
• 1939, Jul 11 Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona - Luther J Dickerson birth
• 1940 US Census: Prescott, Yavapai, Arizona - Luther 26, Alva 23, Zona Lee 6, Fanny Corene 4, Luther James 9/12.
• 1955, Oct 12 Saline, Missouri: Luther James Dickerson death (FG 77432239)
• 1955 Oct 13: Youth Fatally Wounds Self at his farm home. Luther Dickerson, Died at Hospital here early today. Luther James Dickerson, 16, fatally shot himself in the head with a rifle Tue night at his home west of Blue Lick and died at 12:10 o’clock, Wednesday morning at Fitzgibbon hospital. Surviving are his mother, Mrs Jackson Maynard, Kentucky; his father Luther Dickerson of home; two sisters, Mrs. Wayne J Clay, Mullins, West Virginia; Mrs. Kenneth Ussery, Marshall; his stepmother, Mrs. Luther Dickerson, and two half-sisters, Cheryl Ann and Michele Marie Dickerson of the home. (Newspaper Article)
• 1966, Aug 2 Carson City, Nevada: Marriage of Alex C Crawford and Alva M Goodwin
• 1975, Jun 13, Alva M Crawford, 58 died in Barstow, San Bernardio, California. Survivors are her husband: Alex C; three daughters' Zona Lee Clay; Connie Wilson and Corine Usery, all of California. (FG 33190138)
• 1982, Mar 12 marriage Watler R White and Fannie C Hack - Clark County, Nevada
• FG 112688691 Fannie C White b: 6 Jun 1935 d: 7 May 2008

Thus, looking at the Newspaper article  (in Bold) from Oct 13, 1955, I see that Luther Dickerson has a different wife than his first wife of Alva Goodwin (no relation to my Goodwin clan). I see that the son, Luther James Dickerson had two half-sisters, Chery Ann and Michele Marie. Could these be the children of my Mia Mae?

Some wide searches on Ancestry, lead me to a name of Michele Marie Davis who died in 2018. My search consisted of entering Michele Marie Dickerson, with an approximate birth date of 1950 in Missouri, I listed her parents and her sister Cheryl Ann. 

I decide to do a google search on Michele Marie Davis and I found an obituary for a Michele Marie Davis, which list her parents as Luther and Mia Mae Dickerson. BINGO, struck gold.

In the obituary it states she is survived by four children and a brother Gary and a sister Cindy. She was preceded in death by a sister, Cheryl Johnson. It doesn’t list any of her half-siblings, but now I have four children names for Mia Mae. 

Now this may seem very straight forward, however, this took me three days before I found the obituary for Michele Marie. I went down a few wrong rabbit holes. With names like Davis and Johnson, I wasn’t sure it was my people until I found Michele’s obituary. 

Cheryl Anne died in 1990 and I found her in the Ancestry, California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 with her mother’s maiden name of Mulvaney and father’s surname of Dickerson listed. This was my only confirmation that this Cheryl Anne was my person. From here, I found her marriage record, which not only listed her date of birth but her husband’s name, date of birth and their marriage name. he died in 1998. HINT: To get the husband's information, I clicked on his name which made him the Primary person of the record and gave his age and birth date.

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 17: DNA (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

April 25 is DNA Day, and it's no coincidence that the theme for Week 17 is "DNA." Has DNA testing broken down a brick wall for you? Is there a brick wall that you wish it would break down? Have there been any surprises? (If you're posting anything publicly, remember to not identify living people unless you have their permission.) Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

My DNA breakthrough started with a message from another Ancestry user.

I noticed some common names such as Scott and Malone. However, these brought up red flags because my Scott line is on my maternal grandfather’s side while Malone is on my maternal grandmother’s side.

On the message page, the right column has the person who message me and it had a “view” link to take me to our DNA match page. She had a very nice tree. I clicked on the Shared Matches tab to see what clues I could discover from our shared matches. 

We had twelve matches. The first being my full sibling, then a close family who I already recognized to be the son of my 1st cousin on my paternal side. Next was one Extended Family who I had already identified as a 2nd cousin Once removed with our common ancestor of Myron O’Brion and Mary Goodwin, who are on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family.

Then I had nine distant family members. Looking at the notes, I had good notes for three of the matches. They descended from my O’Brion/Goodwin Branch. Four of the matches had trees, where two of them were managed by the person who sent me the message. Thus, I explored the other two trees since I only flagged them as being on my paternal grandmother’s side of the family

These two trees both had a Bartholmeus Kernan and his wife Mary Byrne. I referred to the message from my DNA match, and her mother was a Kernan. I decided to see what kind of information these two trees had on Bartholmeus Kernan. It showed he died in Lost Lake, Wisconsin. I already knew of Lost Lake, Wisconsin because Myron O’Brion and Mary Goodwin are buried in Lost Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin.

I just so happen to be working on expanding my tree by finding all the descendants of my Thomas Goodwin and Jane Burns. This couple is my dead-end couple, since I know nothing of either of their parents, and they are the immigrant couple. 

While working on the Goodwin project, I found out that a local library had a book titled “Some Goodwin & Kieffe Families of New York, Wisconsin & Nebraska”. Compiled by William R & Helen (Kral) Houk, of Claymount, Delaware. This was printed in July of 1997. The 28-page booklet didn’t know much about the descendants of Thomas and Jane, however, it had a transcribed copy of Jane Goodwin’s will. She named Edward Kernan the executor of her will. 

Edward was the son of Bartholomeus Kernan and Mary Byrne. I also did a little searching of Edward and found his marriage record (image) on Ancestry and his witnesses were Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane. WOW! 

I decided to see who else was researching the Bartholomeus Kernan family and looked at more trees of Bartholomeus and found some listed his wife as Mary Burns. This caused a light bulb to go off in my head.

What if Mary and Jane are sisters? Since both of Jane’s sons had died before she did, this might explain why she choose Edward Kernan as her executor of her will. This might have been her nephew, a family member she trusted. 

I also noticed that some of Thomas and Jane’s descendants moved to Nebraska and so did some of Bartholomeus and Mary’s descendants. They moved to the same location in Nebraska. Thus, this might signal family ties. 

Even though I haven’t totally broken down my brick wall, it is starting to crumble a little. I need to research these two families a little more. However, I am still in the middle of my project to find all the descendants of Thomas Goodwin and Jane Burns. I am trying hard not to wander off one unfinished project before moving to another project. Therefore, I printed out some tree pages, and created a new project folder for this brick wall. When I get completed with my Goodwin project, I can then dedicate the proper attention to this problem.

I am so happy that my DNA match reached out to me. Even though, I wasn’t able to help her in her research goal, she now knows how we might be related and it might help her identify other matches that are not on her Scott side of the family but on her Kernan side of the family.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 16: Should be a Movie (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 16 is "Should Be a Movie." What is family history without the stories? (It's a bunch of cold, lonely facts, that's what!) What story in your family should be up on the silver screen? Write about it this week! Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

Thomas E Goodwin, my 1st cousin 3x removed (my paternal grandmother’s side) first married Catherine McMahon (possibly my 1st cousin 3x removed on my paternal grandfather’s side) on Oct 26, 1881. They had two children. Catherine died Nov 1, 1885. She was found dead in bed with marks of violence were plainly visible on the neck, and her death is supposed to have been caused by strangulation. 

An inquest was held and the verdict of the coroner’s jury was that the death was from natural causes. 

Thomas E Goodwin then married Mary Biel on May 29, 1890. They had five children born between 1891 and 1899. Thomas was a saloon keeper. On their 10th wedding anniversary, Thomas came home intoxicated. Mary helped him to bed. About a half an hour later, he came into her room where she lay asleep. He told her that a horse was sick in the barn and that he wished her to hold the lantern while he attended to the animal. However, when they were near the old well, he grabbed her and after a struggle, threw her into the well. Mary was in the well most of the night and nearly died from fright and exposure. Mary’s screams brought help and she was removed from the well by her brother, Lewis Biel and several others.

During the trial, it was mentioned that Thomas had tried to commit his wife, Mary to an insane asylum a few weeks before the alleged attempt to murder her. Also, Thomas tired to show that his wife, if not insane, was in a highly disturbed and hysterical mental condition and had either wandered to the region of the well and fallen in or had attempted suicide. The trail also shown that the couple had domestic troubles.

On Nov, 21, 1900, Mary Goodwin was granted a divorce by Judge Dick and awarded a $2000 alimony.

In Dec 1901, Thomas was sentenced to five years in Waupun State Penitentiary by the same Judge Dick that awarded the divorce between Mary and Thomas. 

Thomas took the appeal to the Supreme Court and in the meantime, was released on bail.  

Even though the case was tried in Janesville, Wisconsin, in Oct 1902, he was found guilty a second time. Unfortunately, for Thomas, this time he was sentenced to ten years.

In Dec 1907, Governor Davidson paroled Thomas on the recommendation of the state board of control, having served only five years of his sentence. A new law was in place that required a prisoner before being paroled, must have served one half of the full term and have guaranteed employment for at least one year. Plus, a monthly report must be made on the conduct and condition of the paroled prisoner.

Mary died on July 24, 1921 and Thomas died Dec 26, 1927. Thomas and his first wife are buried together in Lost Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin while Mary is buried in Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin.

This story sounds like a movie to me. I wonder who would play, Thomas, Catherine, and Mary.  

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!

Week 11: Lucky (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

Were any of your ancestors lucky? Maybe someone won the Georgia Land Lottery? Do you consider yourself lucky to have discovered a particular ancestor or document? Write about it this week! Click here to check out all the themes for 2023.

This past week I considered myself lucky. I was contacted by a DNA match that let me see my shared matches in a different light.

For several months, I have been working on identifying the descendants of my 3rd great grandparents, Thomas Goodwin and his wife Jane. I believe Jane’s maiden name is Burns, however, this was given to me by a distant cousin via an email back in 2009.

Anyway, I decided to select this branch of my family, because I don’t know who either of their parents are, they are both born in Ireland and are my immigrant ancestors. Thomas Goodwin was born about 1796 in Ireland and died Dec 1, 1967. He is buried in a little cemetery known as Annunciation Cemetery however was formerly known as St Mary’s Cemetery.  This cemetery is located in a little community called Lost Lake located in Dodge County, Wisconsin. Jane Goodwin was born about 1811 in Ireland and died Jan 15, 1888 in Dodge County, Wisconsin and is also buried in Annunciation Cemetery. 

Thomas and Jane have five known children, who were born in Ireland and who came to Wisconsin. It appears they stopped off briefly in New York State, since their eldest son John was married in New York City May 16, 1854. 

I descend through their third child, Mary Goodwin born Jan 1, 1839 in Mayo, Ireland and died Mar 18, 1910 in Lost Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin. She married Myron O’Brion who was born in 1835 in New York State and died Nov 1883 in Lost Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin. They were married around 1859 in Fox Lake, Dodge, Wisconsin, USA.

Now back to my DNA match, lets called her KB. She was looking for distant cousins on her Ellen Scott and Bartholomew Kernan line. She is trying to find the parents of Ellen Scott. I do have Scott’s in my tree, on my maternal line.

I proceeded to go to her DNA profile page. It displays her tree and I don’t recognize any names. Next, I select “Shared Matches”. We have a total of 12 matches. The first one is my sister, then my 1st cousin’s son. This tells me that the match isn’t on my maternal line, since this is my paternal 1st cousin’s son.

The next match is labeled “Extended Family” by AncestryDNA and it’s my 2nd cousin 1x removed who our Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) is Myron O’Brion and Mary Goodwin. The remaining nine of the matches are for Distant Family of 4th-6th cousin range. Of these nine, only four have public link trees and one has an unlinked tree.

The first distant match, I look at her tree and see the Kernan name. I see Bartholomeus Kiernan and wife Mary. I click into that tree for Bartholomeus and the first thing I see is that he died in Lost Lake, Wisconsin. I also see that his son is Bartholomew who is married to Ellen Scott. 

Therefore, at first glance, it appears I am not related to her via Ellen Scott but through the Kiernan line.

Looking at some of the other trees tied to my matches for the Kiernan / Kernan line, I noticed that Mary’s last name might be Byrne. 

Several of the Goodwin children of Thomas and Jane married siblings from the Biel family. I was lucky to have someone from the Biel family send me a portion of the History of Joseph and Theresa Biel Family compiled by Carol Graff in October 2003. However, I noticed another descendant, a grandchild or great grandchild had married into the Biel family and it wasn’t part of the portion of the book sent to me. I decided to go online and see if I could find that book. I saw it was listed as a holding of the Beaver Dam Public Library located in Dodge County, Wisconsin. It’s only about 47 miles away and happens to be the town I was born in.

The public library had a listing of other family genealogies in it’s holding and I saw one labelled, “Some Goodwin & Kieffe families of New York, Wisconsin & Nebraska” which was complied by William R & Helen (Kral) Houk in July of 1997. It was only 28 pages long, but I knew a road trip was needed. I really feel lucky finding this listing.

Even though it appears to be lacking quite of few of the descendant lines of Thomas and Jane Goodwin, they included a transcription of Jane’s will. In this will she named Edward Kernan as the executor of her will. Her only two sons had proceeded her in death. 

Edward Kernan is the son of Bartholomeus and Mary Kiernan. I found a marriage record for Edward where the witnesses of his wedding are Thomas and Jane Goodwin. 

I found another son of Bart and Mary, Thomas Kernan’s marriage record where he lists his mother’s name as Burn. I wonder if the Irish accent of Byrne sounds like Burn(s). Could Mary and Jane be sisters? There is some biological connection between the Goodwin descendants and the Kernan’s descendants. Plus, many of the Goodwin and Kernan descendants moved from Wisconsin to Hasting, Nebraska. 

Thus, I started another project folder for my Kernan’s DNA Matches, along with the marriage records and trees of my matches. I feel lucky to have had that DNA match reach out to me. I might not have noticed the Kernan family tie.

Even though, this project will have to be put on hold until I finish my current Goodwin descendant project. I feel lucky to know I have a very interesting project in my future. So far on my current project, I have added over 750 descendants to my tree and I am only on Thomas’s second child of five, Edward and his fourth child of six, Anna and her fourth child of thirteen, Frank. So I might be here for a while. I have also noticed that AncestryDNA ThruLines has increased the projected number of DNA matches from 14 to 37 possible matches for Thomas and Jane Goodwin. My goal of doing this project, was to be able to identify more of my DNA matches. 

Remember to have fun and Just Do Genealogy!

Week 27: Extended Family (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

The theme for Week 27 is "Extended Family." We often focus on those people from whom we descend. But what about their siblings, aunts, uncles, and cousins? They played a role in our ancestors' lives, just like those people play a role in our own lives. This is a good week to explore the lives of these other people in the family tree. Click here to check out all the themes for 2022. 

My father once asked if I found the relative who threw his wife down a well. This was one story I decided to promptly to look into.

Thomas E Goodwin, my 1st cousin 3x removed (my paternal grandmother’s side) had thrown his wife, Mary Biel down a well on the night of May 29, 1900. Thomas was born Dec 18, 1957 in Wisconsin the son of Edward Goodwin and Mary Delaney. Thomas’s grandfather Thomas Goodwin was my 3rd great grandfather. 

Thomas E Goodwin was a saloon keeper and came home intoxicated and she helped him to bed. About a half an hour later came to her room where she lay asleep and told her that a horse was sick in the barn and that he wished her to hold the lantern while he attended to the animal. However, when they were near the old well, he grabbed her and after a struggle, threw her into it. Mrs Mary Goodwin screams brought help and she was removed from the well by her brother, Lewis Biel and several others. 

Mary Goodwin was granted a divorce on Nov 21, 1900.

During the trial, it was mentioned that Mr Goodwin had made an attempt to commit his wife to an insane asylum a few weeks previous to the alleged attempt to murder her. Also, Mr Goodwin tried to show that his wife, if not insane, was in a highly disturbed and hysterical mental condition and had either wandered to the region of the well and fallen in or had attempted suicide. The trial shown that the couple had domestic troubles. 

In Dec 1901 Thomas Goodwin was sentenced to five years in Waupun State Penitentiary. The judge that sentenced him in the attempted murder trial is the same judge, Judge Dick that granted the Divorce request by Mary Goodwin back in Nov 1900.

Thomas Goodwin took the appeal to the Supreme court and in the meantime was released on bail. In Oct 1902, he was found guilty a second time, this time the case was held in Janesville Wisconsin. This time he was sentenced to ten years.

However, in Dec 1907, Governor Davidson paroled him on the recommendation of the state board of control, having served only five years of his sentence. A new law in placed required that before a prisoner is paroled, one half of the full term must be served and employment for at least one year must be guaranteed and a monthly report made on the conduct and condition of the paroled prisoner. 

Thomas and Mary had married on May 29, 1890 had five children born between 1891-1899. It was on their 10th wedding anniversary that Thomas threw Mary down the well. Thomas was previously married to a Catherine McMahon on Oct 26, 1881 and they had two children. Catherine died Nov 1, 1885.

When I looked up more information on Catherine, who might also be my 1st cousin 3x removed on my paternal grandfather’s side, I found that her death was questionable. 

She was found dead in bed Sunday Morning, Nov 1, 1885. Marks of violence were plainly visible on the neck, and her death is supposed to have been caused by strangulation. An inquest was held and it was determined that her death was from natural causes. 

I don’t like to speak ill of the dead, but I really suspect Thomas had something to do with Catherine’s death. 

Mary died on July 24th 1921 and Thomas died Dec 26, 1927. Thomas and his first wife are buried together in Lost Lake, Dodge County, Wisconsin while Mary is buried in Beaver Dam, Dodge County, Wisconsin.

You never know what you might find out about your extended family.  Remember to have fun and to Just do Genealogy!

Week 10: Worship (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks)

Religion played an important role in the lives of many of our ancestors. Write about how a person's faith impacted their life, how an ancestor was involved with their church, or a discovery you've made in church records. Click here to check out all the themes for 2022.

I have taken a different spin on this. I have decided to select my 2nd great grandfather Myron O’Brion who took his own life over a difference of religious view between himself and his family. He was not a member of any church. My warning is that this subject matter is very sensitive, however I feel it is important to share, because depression is known to run in families and it’s all a part of life. A very sad part, indeed. 

Myron was born in 1835 in New York State, the son of John O’Brion and his wife Jane Margaret Kress. After Spending much of his childhood days in Dodge County, Wisconsin, he grew up and married Mary Goodwin, daughter of Thomas Goodwin and Jane Burns. She was also living in the same vicinity. After marriage, they moved to a new home in Fountain Prairie. The farm was located one and one-half miles northwest of Fall River. After living there twelve years, he moved to a farm in the Lost Lake area of Dodge County, Wisconsin. He lived there until his death on November 19, 1883. Mary also lived on the farm until her death on March 18, 1910. She was born January 1, 1839 in Ireland. Their children were: Mary Jane O’Brion, John, Henreitta Cora (my line), Jessica, Caroline, Alice, and Thomas.    

Randolph Radical, Columbia Co, Wisconsin - 27 Nov 1883    

SUICIDE. - On Tuesday p.m. last Justice Calkins, of this place, was called to hold a coroner's inquest upon the body of Myron O'Brien, found dead by the road side some four miles from his residence, in the town of Westford. The justice, accompanied by Dr. Bliss, went to O'Brien's house and a jury was convened the same evening, which rendered a verdict that the deceased came to his death from poison administered by his own hand. The facts as developed at the inquest are as follows: Mr. O'Brien left his home on Monday, on foot, stating that he was going to Columbus, and that his family would not see him again alive. His son accompanied him a mile or so, vainly trying to persuade him to return home. He arrived at Columbus and had his will drawn up by a lawyer, signed and duly attested. On Tuesday morning after procuring a bottle of whisky and a vial of strychnine, he started for home on foot. When found, the whisky bottle in his overcoat pocket was nearly empty and the strychnine bottle duly labeled was found in his bootleg, with about a teaspoonful of the powder taken out. The presumption is that on his way he had drank enough of the whisky to nerve himself up or craze him then added the strychnine and taken a last and fatal drink.   

Mr O'Brien was a farmer, some 60 years of age, supposed to be well to do and not a man of sufficiently in temperate habits to impel the commission of the act. he had been in a depressed mental condition for some days, induced, it is said by some temporary pecuniary trouble and a difference of religious views between himself and the family, they being Catholics, while he, we believe, was not a member of any church. His suicide is doubtless attributable to the combination of these causes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

The distance between Lost Lake and Columbus is 12 miles. Even though the article states he was some 60 years of age, I have him as only 48. In the 1850 census, he is a 14-year-old boy and thus his birth year is pretty much accurate. His children at the time of his death ranged in age from 24 to 4 years old. His eldest son John was 23, most likely the son mentioned in the article. 

Myron’s mother, Jane Margaret Kress died the following summer on Aug 19, 1884. I feel sorry for her having to live through such as sadness. Myron’s wife, Mary Goodwin lived 27 more years and died on Mar 18, 1910 on the farm. 

Later that year (1910), the farm was sold at public auction.