Genealogy Jottings

Richard Ryan (1852-1925), an ancestor of mine, was raised in the La Salle County, Illinois household of his aunt and her husband, Rose and William Sullivan. The Sullivans had a large family of their own with eleven children. Some of these offspring have been difficult to distinguish from one another.

According to U. S. census records, the Sullivans had several daughters, including Elizabeth, Rose, and Sarah. Other records refer to Nellie and Sadie, nicknames that must have belonged to two of these three girls. Which nickname went with which daughter, and what happened to the third girl?

One of the three probably died young because only two are mentioned as survivors in obituaries for the parents and siblings.

A cursory internet search confirmed my hunch that Sadie was a common nickname for Sarah. Additional census records and family obituaries confirmed that Sadie was Sarah Sullivan (1873-aft. 1941).

That left Nellie’s identity in question. Was she Elizabeth, or was she Rose? Nellie is usually a nickname for girls named Ellen or Eleanor, not Elizabeth or Rose. I needed more information to figure out who Nellie was.

I began collecting more evidence:

1. The girls’ brother Thomas A. Sullivan passed away in 1941. He was survived by a sister, Mrs. William Ahern. Elizabeth or Rose?
2. The Illinois marriage records include a record for Rose Helen Sullivan, daughter of Rose and William Sullivan, marrying William Ahern in 1918. Rose Sullivan became Rose Ahern.
3. Find A Grave provided the Illinois cemetery markers for the Aherns. Their inscriptions identified them as William and Nellie Ahern, who passed away in 1960 and 1961.

So it was daughter Rose who was known as Nellie. Why? Perhaps the family needed a nickname for her when she had the same proper name as her mother. Her middle name Helen may have become Nellie.

The nicknames found in some records have now been applied to the proper Sullivan sisters. Sadie was Sarah, Nellie was Rose, and Elizabeth remains unaccounted for.