Surname Saturday - Thomas

 

Surname Saturday - Thomas

This is the first of the eight surnames we are adding that relate to the female side of the family. These are often the least researched, except that here, of course, in the first generation it is only natural

Ruth Thomas Bolger (1917-2008), Nancy’s mother, has been well researched and more of that will be shared here. She was well known in the family as a gatherer of family history information. THANKS!
Her parents were Wesley Lynk Thomas (1891-1927) and Freyda Elsina Weaver(1889-1941). Ruth was the first born of five children: Ruth, Dorothy, Wes, Bill, and Mae.
Link (he went by his middle name) died at age 36 and Freyda at age 52. Ruth lived to be 91. Nancy lived to 81.

Lynk Thomas

Wesley Lynk Thomas’s father also died young, at 40.

Lynk’s parents were Charles Wesley Thomas (1860-1900) and Marietta E. Lynk (1865-1932).
Lynk was the middle child: Sadie, Lynk, and Charles (well-known as Charlie, or Uncle Charlie).

Charles Wesley Thomas

Charles Wesley Thomas was the son of John Evan Thomas (1820-1886) and Lydia Ann Hartman (1828-1891). Charles was born as their eighth child in Stephenson County, Illinois.

Here is the latest information Nancy had gathered on John Evan Thomas, the earliest Thomas immigrant to America in this line:

John Evan Thomas

“John Thomas, son of John and Elizabeth Thomas was born the 10th day of November in 1820. He was born in South Wales, Camarthenshire, the lower Hamlet of Manordilo. He was baptized by Reverend Prothro, a clergyman of the Church of England, when about three years of age. He emigrated to the America (fall of 1837). I have concluded he came in 1840 as per his biography in the History of Marshall County.

Lydia Hartman, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth Hartman was born on the 29th of March 1828 in Kelly Township, Union County PA. She was baptized by J.H.Fries, a preacher in the German Reform Church.
When Lydia passed away, she was preparing to milk the cows on a Sunday evening. She told her son-probably John Jr. she was not feeling well and with out a moments warning her spirit departed.

They were married the 27th of March 1845, at the German Reform Church in Union County in PA. I have found that they had at least 10 children. At least 4 children may have died while they were living in Cedarville, IL. “

We visited Union County, Pennsylvania, and saw and walked on the grounds/land where they lived. He arrived there about 1842, where their first 3 children were born, and stayed about 15 years before moving on to Stephenson County, Illinois, where 7 more children were born. The family then moved to Marshall County, Iowa in September of 1864, where two additional children were born.

Families are Forever! ;-)