Family Contacts

John Francis Kennison   1900 - 1972

I wasn't thinking of tracing our dad's father but in the recent post for dad's great grandmother there was an active link to John from Ancestry.com .  I clicked on the link and went a little way down the rabbit hole and found a few interesting bits of our family history.  John was born in 1900 in Liesenring.  His father is shown as John T Mullin and mother is Mary Ellen McCullough Kennison - 1873 - 1935.  I couldn't find anything on John T Mullin without joining Ancestry but I have a clear memory that I was told that our family came from the Mullin line through John and Josephine. 

 

I found that John T Mullin was born in 1869 in Parkersburg WV and passed away in 1900, the year of our paternal grandfather's birth.  Dad's grandmother on John's line is Mary Ellen McMurrough Kennison, born in 1873 in Glasgow Scotland.  Six years after John's birth Mary Ellen married George W. Kennison.  It appears that George adopted John and gave him the Kennison name.  From this sparse record it seems that John Mullin and Mary Ellen conceived John Kennison and Mr. Mullin passed away the same year.  Here is the photo of our great grandmother, the Scottish lass, Mary Ellen.

John Francis Kennison died in 1972 in Lima Ohio and is buried in McClellandtown PA.  Dad travelled to Lima around 1952 to visit his father that had fled his family many years earlier.  He took Gina and Greg on this trip so they may have a memory of this strange adventure.  John had sisters, Bertha Mincer of Ronco and Gwen Tippen of Masontown.  I clearly remember mom and dad visiting with them.

I found the death certificate for Mary Ellen McMurrough. She is buried in the McCelland Cemetery in McClelland PA in what must be a family plot.  Her cause of death is listed as carcinoma of the stomach (damn big C).  Her parents are listed as Patrick McMurrough and Ella Church of Glasgow.