More Irish in the Foster Line
I wonder if my great great grandmother Kate Foster was ever aware of her Irish ancestry. She was born Cathrine Jane Foster on September 16, 1848, in Cherrytree, Pennsylvania. Her parents were Morris Foster and Anne Magdaleen Milliron. Her father Morris died in 1852 at the age of 35. I’m sure it was a tough time for the family. Anne Magdaleen was left with four children under the age of 8 years old. She took herself and her children back to Mercer, Pennsylvania, which is where she was born and where most of her family lived.
Anne married George Richael in 1853 and quickly started increasing the size of the family. With all of these younger siblings about, it’s very likely that Kate never heard much about her father’s family. In fact, it was always reported that she was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, but that isn’t true. The family lived in Cherrytree when she was born. The confusion around that was probably one of the reasons her descendants had difficulty tracking her ancestry.
But Morris Foster did in fact have Irish ancestry. I’m not sure of his mother’s ancestry. Her name was Catherine Moore and I don’t have much information on her. His father’s name was James Moore and there are more details about his ancestry. Last year I wrote a post about his father Hugh Foster who was born in Derry, which is in Northern Ireland. I don’t know when he immigrated to the United States, but he ended up in Liberty, Pennsylvania. Liberty and Mercer are both in Mercer County.
Hugh Foster wasn’t the only one with Irish heritage. He was married to Mary Elizabeth McCullough. Like I said last year, that sounds like an Irish name for sure! I said that I would look into her history, but I didn’t actually do that until this evening when I was looking for something to write about. I read last year’s post and realized I had been remiss. Lax, lax, lax! So I started looking into her family, and it didn’t take long to find some interesting things. I like it when that happens.
Mary Elizabeth McCullough was the daughter of James McCullough & Martha Hance. One of the first things I found was James’ will, which was written in 1778. He lived from 1720 to 1781. He wills to his beloved wife Martha her bed and bed furniture, her choice of bay mares and her saddle, and her choice of two cows and six sheep. She also has the use of the back bedroom of their house during her natural life. She is also allowed to use the pasture to keep the animals that he left her. The “plantation” was left to his sons John and Hance.
He instructs his sons to pay his two daughters – Jean McClellan and Mary Foster (my ancestor) – the sums of eighty pounds each. It’s interesting to see the things that are listed in an ancestor’s will. He mentions a wagon, a windmill, and a Bible. He mentions other books, which shows that he was literate. I’m not sure if the will is written in his own hand or not. The spelling of the last name varies in the document. They may have been ancestors of my grandmother Myrtle Phenice Bucklin, but they didn’t have the spelling superpower that she passed down to me. He also leaves some items to other people. I’m not sure if they are family or not. I’ll have to explore his extended family. Maybe I’ll do that next year!
I already know a little bit about his extended family from this blurb in an old book about Pennsylvania. It reports that James came from Ireland with his two brothers and an unmarried sister (Anna). It says that he is the founder of the American McCulloughs. But more importantly, it tells us when he came to America! Finally, I know the date of immigration for one of my Irish lines. James first settled in Delaware in 1743. A decade later he moved the family to Franklin County, Pennsylvania. At that time the family consisted of himself, his wife Martha, and their son John. If you read the clip, you can see that it was a difficult time in American history.
So this year I’ll be thinking of James McCullough for St. Patrick’s Day. He and Martha and their daughter Mary. Erin go bragh!