PA-QUAKERS-L Archives

From:
Subject: [PA-QUAKERS] Norris family - early marriages to McCullough family?
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 08:07:28 EDT

Dear Jeann(ette?),

I saw your helpful note to a fellow lister to help them think about ways to
track their Quaker families.

I am side-tracked by your reference to your Norris family.

I have McCulloughs I have traced back, so far, to my g-g-g-g-grandparents
(Enoch and Elizabeth McCullough) for whom I have no dates. My g-g-g-grandfather
(Oliver McCullough) was born in PA in 1798 so Enoch was in the U.S. by then.

A very brief family history written by one of my great aunts (Ellena P.
McCullough) -- a history with many facts that have been supported by documentation
and a few really big errors -- states that the first McCullough to come to the
U.S. (or the U.S.-to-be) was named Norris McCullough.

So far, I have found no such person. However, Oliver's oldest son by his
first marriage did name his youngest son Norris. My great-aunt did not know
about this half-cousin since one of her errors makes it clear she did not know who
Oliver was. Therefore, she could not have been influenced in her assertion
about an ancestor named Norris by the known existence of a cousin named Norris.

Over time I have become frustrated trying to move back further in my family
tree than Enoch and have speculated on the possibilities. As you might have
guessed already, it has occurred to me that one of my McCulloughs could have
married a Norris and named a child Norris McCullough. Perhaps this happened in
the U.S., in Scotland (where our family history note says the McCulloughs came
from), or even in Ireland (which the spelling of the family name suggests the
family stopped for at least a generation or two before heading overseas).

If there was a late 1700 (or earlier) marriage in the U.S. (Enoch's
grandfather, perhaps?) that produced a child named Norris McCullough, perhaps your
Norris family history might provide some clues.

The McCulloughs I have located back to the birth of Enoch's son Oliver puts
them in Chester Co., PA; Cecil Co., MD; and New Castle Co., DE. While finding
the family in three counties might suggest they moved quite long distances,
this MAY not be the case since the known places that this family lived between
1798 through the next hundred years were very close together: North East, MD;
Colora, MD (where the Nottingham Presbyterian Church is located); Newark, DE
(where Enoch was a weaver at least from 1810 until 1827); New London, PA (which
is just about where the three counties almost converge just west of Newark).
After the 1850s, Wilmington, DE, was added to the known family locations --
though they certainly may have had family members there earlier.

Also, though they may have been Presbyterians earlier in the family history,
by the 1850s, most seem to have been Methodists. Several McCulloughs married
into Quaker or formerly Quaker families, including Cloud, Walton, Pyle,
Carter, and Mercer families.

The original family history note and oral history of the family seems to
place the first McCulloughs in eastern PA on "a large farm," possibly in
Lancaster Co. or Bucks Co., but that "clue" is really quite tenuous. Given the known
locations of later family, Chester Co. (which included Delaware Co.) should
not be eliminated from the possible home location! We really have no idea what
part of PA the McCulloughs lived in prior to Enoch's appearance in Newark, DE.

Does any of this ring any bells for you? (even a little tinkle?) Could you
possibly come up with any speculations for what members of our families might
have intersected to produce the child named Norris McCullough? Or ideas for
where they might have lived?

Any clues will be gratefully embraced!

Karen Carter
Minneapolis, MN

This thread:

• [PA-QUAKERS] Norris family - early marriages to McCullough family? by