Sullivan Fitzpatrick Coughlin Genealogy

[It might be difficult to follow the genealogical information below in narrative form; at some point I'll link to a genealogical tree or chart so the information can be followed more easily.]

As mentioned in previous blog entries, my mother, Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick Coughlin, was the daughter of John Francis Fitzpatrick and Margaret Ann Sullivan. In this entry, I will focus on the Sullivan side of the family.

My mother's mother, Margaret Ann Sullivan, was born in Brownhelm Township in 1885 (she died on March 18, 1940). Brownhelm is flat and fertile farmland in Lorain County, Ohio, about 30 miles west of Cleveland. It is right near the great Amherst stone quarries, where the famous and beautiful Berea Sandstone was mined. Margaret's father was John J. Sullivan, born in 1860 in Montreal, Canada. He died very young, in 1899, in Brownhelm. John J. married Sarah Buckley on November 6, 1882. Sarah had also been born in Montreal in 1860, the daughter of John Buckley, born on June 24, 1834, in Tellamore, County Offaly, and Mary Keenan, also born in Ireland in June of 1832. There were seven Sullivan children: Frank (born 1883), Margaret Ann (1885), Mary Ellen (1887), Sarah (1890), Elizabeth (1892), Florence (24 Oct. 1895), Edward Michael (23 Jan. 1898). I knew Great Uncle Ed Sullivan because he lived with his wife Helen and children Mary Ellen, Sally, Johnny, and Mickey next door to my Coughlin grandparents on Hayes Avenue in Willoughby, Ohio. Note how the name Mary Ellen came down from Great Aunt Mary Ellen Sullivan, to Ed and Helen's daughter Mary Ellen, to my own sister, Mary Ellen Coughlin. And of course Margaret Ann Sullivan Fitzpatrick gave her name to my mother and to Maggie Brock (Margaret Ann Brock). We can go one more generation back with the Buckley's. John Buckley, my great great grandfather, was the son of Michael Buckley, born in 19 November 1800 in Ireland, and Mary Handy, also of Ireland. Michael Buckley (my great great great grandfather!) lived a long life and died on April 24, 1892, in Brownhelm Township. His son John died 30 August 1923, in Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio.