52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 26 Prompt - Legend

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 26

Prompt – Legend

I have had lots of trouble with this prompt. When I am stuck I go to defining what it is I am trying to blog about.

I think in any genealogical history there are many stories that come down from ancestors which is nothing short of folk lore. My family is no exception. 

The Legendary Robert Windsworth Sullivan

In my family the best legend is that of my mother's father; Grandma M (Mary McLaughlin nee Krikau) first husband – Robert Windsworth Sullivan. I have blogged of him many times. And yes he is more of my “brick wall” than a legend. However I feel his story has become an epic tale.

His names include Pat Sullivan, Patrick Sullivan, Patty, Robert Patrick Sullivan, Bob Windsworth Sullivan, Robert Wentworth Sullivan, and if I asked my mother about him, she had many more unkind names. The thread that is constant in his narrative is that his last name is Sullivan. However the fact that he has so many aliases should be a flag that he may not be quite as he was sold.

The narrative our family was told was pretty constant like a practiced story! Grandma was young and living in Winnipeg with her family. She fell in love with Sullivan, the cook. They married, had my mom and moved to Saskatoon. He worked as a chef on the CP rail that ran between Winnipeg and Saskatoon. Somewhere along the way he married a second woman in Winnipeg while married to grandma in Saskatoon. They found out about each other somehow and charged him with bigamy and sent him to jail at Stony Mountain Penitentiary in Winnipeg. Apparently they divorced him however grandma forgave Sullivan and “took him back” and had two more children. However he never changed his ways and grandma claimed that she divorced him. Robert Sullivan more or less fell from the earth never to be seen or talked about again. Although we did hear a rumor that he remarried a women in British Columbia and had lots more children.

Well it seems plausible but is very hard to prove with evidence. I have grandma's marriage certificate to Bob Windsworth Sullivan on April 11, 1921. The marriage certificate was torn up the middle almost in half. That pretty much says it all. 

The certificate says he was born in Pittsburgh, PA and his parents were born in Dublin, Ireland. In my search thus far I have not found any matching or even partial matching documents to confirm this.

I looked for their divorce. I know before 1968, divorce in Canada had to be a Statue of Law by The Federal Government and thus recorded. It had to be publicized in their local newspaper for 6 months prior to the divorce. On line, The Library Archives have listed all divorces in Canada pre 1968. There are 12,000 plus names recorded alphabetically.  I searched for every variation in her name and did not find her or him on the list. I have to think that she never got a divorce before she married a second husband, but in the 1920's it would be easy enough to ignore the first marriage if the man just disappeared.

Last year I ordered and received my mother's “live birth registration”. 

I was surprised when I read that her father is listed as Patrick Sullivan and address was listed as Stony Mountain Penitentiary and occupation as prisoner. So he was already in jail when mom was born April 1922 – one year after the marriage. Even more interesting is the birthplace of Sullivan is listed as Los Angeles, California. Quite different from his birthplace on the wedding certificate. What the heck?

A while back I came across a registration of death from British Columbia for a person called Robert Wentworth Sullivan. This person died November 24, 1952. while standing in an unemployment line in Chilliwack, BC. He had a history of Atherosclerotic Heart Disease. He was a Canadian Irish cook in a local cafe and was married to a Jean Alice Walker. However his birthplace is listed as Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada. Oi!! The death registration list his birth date as May 29, 1887. That birth date makes him older than my other two documents. But keep in mind that on the death certificate it is his brother in law who is giving the information. Lots of room for error. For all intense and purpose I am pretty sure that this is my maternal grandfather but I can't connect the dots from Saskatoon to Chilliwack.

I think this is as close to a legendary person as my family has. I hope that the more times I write about him, the more likely I will find some tidbit of missed information that will lead me to who he really is. 

And that is the Legend of Robert Windsworth Sullivan.

Wendy