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"We all carry, inside us, people who came before us."
Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas

main image

Debunking the family legend

When I was quite young, my grandmother, Nellie Joyce Morton Allison told me that we were descended from John Morton, signer of the Declaration of Independence. My dad knew the story, as did my Aunt Betty and many other family members. It was a point of pride. Grandma also told me that we were related to Julius Sterling Morton, the founder of Arbor Day.

In 2003, armed with a copy of our family tree information that Betty Morton Baird (grandma’s niece) had prepared and shared with her cousins via a letter dated Jan 27, 1976, I set out to prove the connection.

But try as I might, I could not confirm a connection between grandma and John Morton, signer. I found biological data for John Morton, including the names of all of his children, but none of them were named Willliam, whom I had confirmed was our ancestor, nor did the list of William's siblings match up to the names of John Morton's children. John Morton's ancestors and descendants are well documented so I felt confident that this wasn't just due to faulty records.

There was also a huge gap in years – 56 - between John Morton's birth and our William's birth, which made me doubt that John Morton was William Morton's father, as Betty had listed. That said, William Morton was born four years after John Morton's youngest of 10 children so it wasn't entirely impossible but I started thinking that perhaps John Morton was William Morton's grandfather not father.

However, I couldn't find a William Morton listed as a child of any of John Morton's children. I could go up or down either Morton branch but I could not get the two ends to meet.

I was also puzzled that family legend failed to mention Swedish ancestry. Given that John Morton's grandfather's and great grandfather's surnames are listed as Mortonson and that his great grandfather had emigrated from Sweden, that seems like a big detail to leave out of the family legend.

By this time, I had also uncovered the Blackburn family tree website, which matched my information for William Morton's descendants and provided me with his ancestors.

So I said goodbye to the family legend and started researching our actual family lineage for grandpa’s side (Allison) and grandma’s side (Morton). I had to put it aside not long after I started but I’m back at it and having a blast learning about our family’s roots.

Lisa Allison Albert

P.S. I was able to connect John Morton, signer, to Julius Sterling Morton. As a gardener, I was sorely disappointed to learn that I wasn't related to the guy who started Arbor Day.

"We're all immortal, as long as our stories are told."
Elzabeth Hunter, The Scribe

Lorem Ipsum

Bragging rights? Perhaps not.

I slew another family legend today: that we are descendants of Pocahontas. I first learned about this when I came across multiple sources that stated that my twice great-grandmother Elizabeth Woodson Allison was the oldest living descendant of Pocahontas, with my ancestor as the likely source for this detail (one was a newspaper article that interviewed her just before her 98th birthday). My dad had told me that he thought we might have Native American blood in us but he didn’t know any details but it got me wondering if this connection could be true.

Hours of research later, I strongly doubt it is. I’ve traced Elizabeth Woodson Allison’s line back many generations and I’ve yet to find any lineage that ties us to John Rolfe (Pocahontas’ husband), to Col Robert Bolling, who married John Rolfe’s daughter, Jane Rolf, or to her descendants. Continue reading, 3rd pagagraph...

interest

The Homestead at Roach

The following is the story of The Homestead, as told by my Aunt Betty (Betty Allison Moore), reprinted with permission from Mom and Dad, A Remembrance in Their Own Words, compiled and edited by Hyatt Moore III - Lisa Allison Albert

About eight miles from us was the town of Roach, which doesn't exist any more. It was just a settlement, with a post office, one general store, a sawmill and a schoolhouse. The school was one room with all graces and one teacher who came every year from another state. There were two of us seventh graders. It was a company town of the owners who owned the sawmill. They made railroad ties. When the trees suitable for that purpose were gone, the company would desert that town and start a new one. If I remember right, Roach was the name of the company that owned the sawmill, and the town. Continue reading, 2nd pagagraph...

"Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Welcome!

The John Philip Allison and Nellie Joyce Morton family tree website is a work-in-progress, updated regularly. Start here...(coming soon)


Elusive ancestors

I need your help finding our Most Wanted ancestors! Please contact me if you have any information about them.


What's in a name?

Surnames sometimes change over time, evolving as language and accepted practices change, or as our ancestors move from one country to another...(click crest).


The famous, the infamous ...

In 2003, when I disproved the family legend - direct descendants of John Morton, a signer of The Declaration of Independence - I thought for sure that my Aunt Betty would, in jest, disown me. I softened the blow with the news that I had found other famous ancestors in our lineage.

...and the wonderfully ordinary

Eulogy to Al, My Brother

A touching tribute to Al (above, right), written by Jim Allison (above, left), November 1999

He was my brother in the truest and finest sense of that word. He was just my brother but he was my best friend, too.

Early in our lives, we lived on a remote homestead in northern Colorado. Out of necessity, we made do with one another as playmates. That’s when our friendship, our companionship and brotherhood started to develop. Continue reading, 3rd pagagraph...

"Names have power, like magic spells." Cinderella

TOP 30 SURNAMES, A to Z: Allison, Blackburn, Bonnttrager, Branch, Brian, Butler, Chastain, Cowan, Crawford, Gray, Harader, Hay, Hayth, Klock, LeVillain, Lott, Moore, Morton, O'Neill, Payne, Phillips, Randolph, Robinson, Skinner, Smith, Soblet, Taylor, Titus, Woodson.

More ...

"You can steer yourself any direction you choose." Dr. Seuss

OUR ANCESTORS CALLED THESE PLACES HOME: Arkansas, Bavaria, California, Colorado, England, France, Germany, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Ireland, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Scotland, South Carolina, Switzerland, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and West Virginia

More ...

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Resources


Blackburn Family Association
Hay Family Tree
Pierre Chastain Family Association
US Gen Web Project

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