Month: July 2007

I’m not sure where the weekend went. I spent most of it trying to unsnarl a couple of problems in Esther’s family tree. It’s a little bit shocking how much of a time suck genealogy can be.

The problem was that several generations back, a man named Luke Dillon–“a Quaker by faith”–supposedly fell in love with a girl named Susannah Garrett. Her father–who was, of course, rich and powerful–did not approve, presumably because Luke was a A) a drunk¹ and/or B) poor. The two love birds eloped and emigrated from County Armagh, Ireland to Nantucket, Massachusetts, in either 1709 or 1724. They had four children (or maybe six). If they emigrated in 1709, one child (or maybe two) was born in Ireland, one was born at sea (or maybe Nantucket), and two (or maybe three) were born in either Nantucket or Bucks County, Pennsylvania. If they emigrated in 1724, all were born in Ireland. Except, of course, the one who was mysteriously born at sea.

And all that does not account for how Susannah could have been born in Guilford County, North Carolina, but magically elope from County Armagh, Ireland with the love of her life, a drunken weaver man.

Anyway, most everyone agrees that Luke died in 1716 or 1717. He either got drunk, fell off his horse, rolled into a ditch, and froze to death, or he climbed off his horse, sat under a tree, got drunk, and froze to death. Regardless of which end he allegedly met, the story says his body was not found until the spring thaw.

Susannah, of course, was pregnant at the time and gave birth to Luke Jr. after his father’s death. She remarried, either to a man named Bridges, or a man named Peter Dillon. Peter may have been Luke’s brother, or his cousin, or even his father, or the names may have been purely coincidental.

Or the whole story may be just that, a story. See, as far as I can tell, there is no actual evidence that Luke Dillon ever existed. There was a Susannah (who may or may not have been a Garrett), who was (probably) born in America, and she had four children–one of them, Daniel, was an ancestor of Esther–and she was married to a man named Peter Dillon. That much seems to be borne out by actual evidence–tax records, land deeds, etc. It’s amazing to me, though, how many folks claim that the “Luke and Susannah” story is true. Some even go so far as to state that they have “evidence” because it was published in a book, written by a descendant of Luke and Susannah. Because, you know, if it’s in print, it cannot be a lie! (I actually laughed out loud when I read the above “I have a book that proves it!” response on a Dillon family message board.)

Aieee!

Photo: Esther Munro and Edith Kilbury, Piper City, Illinois, circa 1915 (courtesy of Cheryl Ford)

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¹ I would think that being a drunk would have gotten one kicked out of the Friends, but who knows?