Kin and Konnections: A Family History Blog

In 2016, I inherited some of my grandmother's personal papers. This included some postcards from the early 20th century to her paternal grandparents, Frank and Mary Ellen (Ingersoll) Bryant of Los Angeles.  They were originally from Bloomington, Illinois.  The earliest postcard in the collection was from a soldier, Warren Allen, sent from Paris, France in about 1918.  When I originally shared this on my blog, I did not know how Mr. Allen was related to the family. There was also a 1930 postcard from Alice Allen of South Bend, Indiana addressed to "Dear Cousins": 24 November 1930 Postcard from Alice Allen to Mrs. R. F. Bryant from family collection. It turns out that Mary Ellen had a first cousin, Alice Louella Ingersoll, who married William E. Allen in Bloomington on 24 September 1890.  They had at least three sons, Howard, Warren, and Herbert, born in the 1890s.  Twenty-four year-old Warren William Allen (1893-1970), was working as a bookkeeper and residing in ...

John H. Bryant, Contractor and Builder, Bloomington, Illinois The following biography is listed in the Portrait and Biographical Album of McLean County, Illinois, published in Chicago in 1887 by Chapman Brothers:  JOHN H. BRYANT, contractor and builder, having his office at the intersection of Northeast and Douglas streets, Bloomington, may be properly numbered among the pioneer settlers of Illinois, as he came here in 1837 with his parents, being then a young child. He was born in East Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 3, 1833, his parents being Eben and Martha (Brown) Bryant, natives of Wakefield and Charlestown, Mass. Eben Bryant was a farmer by occupation, and emigrated from the Bay State to Illinois in 1837, settling in Pike County, upon 160 acres of wild land, which he improved and cultivated and occupied until his death; which occurred in 1866. The mother survived him twelve years, dying at the old homestead in 1878. They were the parents of five children, four now living, as follows: ...

A note I wrote on 29 October 2002 for my ancestor John Henry Bryant in my family tree: The biography from the Portrait and Biographical Album of McLean County is one of my favorite finds.  I was in the Los Angeles Public Library on a weekend in September 2000.  I thought I had just about tapped out all of the resources the library had to offer for my genealogical research.  Boy, was I wrong.  When I pulled the old crumbling book from the shelf, I looked up the family names from McLean County: Bryant, Champion, Burwell, Ingersoll.  I was elated to find good old John H. Bryant.  I realized I had seen the biography earlier that year when I first started my research but had dismissed it because I didn't recognize the family connection.  This linked our Illinois Bryants back to Massachusetts and to the ancestor, Abraham Bryant, that came from England to America.

Mystery Mail from World War I Soldier The above postcard or carte postale is the oldest item in my grandmother's postcard collection.  A W. W. Allen sent the card via soldier mail from Paris, France, to Mrs. Frank Bryant of Los Angeles, California.  The front depicts an early 20th century street scene at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  The message says, "Paris 4/13 [April 13th] - I'm having a short vacation and a wonderful time.  W. Allen."  Mrs. Bryant (nee Mary Ellen Ingersoll, 1862-1936), originally from Bloomington, Illinois, relocated to Los Angeles with her family in the early 1910s.  She was my grandmother's grandmother.  Mr. Allen is not a known relative.  So who could he be?  Perhaps he was a neighbor or a family friend.  There could be another connection.  There is a later postcard postmarked November 25, 1930, from Alice Allen of South Bend, Indiana, to Mrs. Bryant which starts wit...

Recently, I saw a segment about Ingersoll wristwatches circa World War I on the PBS television program Antiques Roadshow . It triggered a flashback to my mother telling me that we’re related to the Ingersoll watch family. At the time, images of Bavarian forefathers living deep in the forest and building cuckoo clocks swirled in my head. Before family lore starts spinning out of control, let’s explore the real story. I can trace at least two family lines, the Bryants of Reading, Massachusetts and the Ingersolls of Long Island, New York to early colonial America, through my great-grandfather, Jerome Calvin Bryant. Jerome and his mother, Mary Ellen Ingersoll, are listed on page 494 of A Genealogy of the Ingersoll Family in America 1629-1925 , by Lillian Drake Avery (click here to view a digital version of the book at FamilySearch). Mary Ellen (Henry Jackson 6 , Henry 5 , Ezra 4 , Josiah 3 , John 2 ,John 1 ) was the seventh generation from the immigrant ancestor born in England, Joh...

Bloomington, Illinois was home to the Bryant and Ingersoll families for more than fifty years.   The city of Bloomington is located in central Illinois and serves as the county seat of McLean County.    Its claim to fame is that AbrahamLincoln represented clients in several cases here in the circuit court as a young lawyer.   Here is a timeline of some historical and family events: 1820s              The first white settlers arrive and call the area Blooming Grove. 1831                 The city of Bloomington is founded. 1837                 The Bryant family, Eben and Martha and sons Eben Francis and John Henry, move from Massachusetts to Illinois, settling in Pike County.    Eben buys 160 acres and runs a farm.   The parents remai...