Initial Morrison Research

There was no Morrison family in Davis County with a child matching these characteristics, so I started searching surrounding counties.  In the 1856 Iowa State census for Wapello County, the neighboring county immediately north of Davis County, I found a Thomas Morrison, age 2, born in Pennsylvania, son of Joseph Morrison, age 35 and born in Ireland, and Elizabeth, age 27 and born in Ireland [1856 State of Iowa Census Microfilm, roll #25, page #369, line #30].  The 1856 census said the family had been in Iowa 2 years at that point.  I found them still in Wapello County in 1860, this time Joseph is listed as age 44, Elizabeth as age 29 and Thomas as age 8 [1860 Federal Census Microfilm, roll #343, page #631, line #4].  Quite a swing in ages for a four year period, but also not uncommon in census records, especially when the enumerated people were immigrants and unschooled.  This family consists of my great grandfather and his parents.  This was my first leap of faith.  Going back to the obituary statement "�and has resided here most of the time since�", I have searched the area around Davis and Wapello Counties looking for a John Thomas Morrison as a child who was born in Pennsylvania in 1852 and have been unable to locate any such individual, other than the Joseph Morrison family in Wapello County.  Unfortunately John Thomas' obituary did not identify his parents' names.  One piece of circumstantial evidence is that John Thomas and Nancy Rebeca named their first-born Joseph Artensus.  With the tendency to name first born sons after the father's father, and with the Irish nature of the middle name, it seems quite feasible this son is named after his grandfather.  I have located probate records that help to make this leap of faith less of a leap and more of a step.  More on this later.

When I located Joseph and his family, I found it an interesting coincidence that in 1860 they were living next door to a George Forsythe (sic) family, since I had been researching Forsythes in Davis County.  In the 1856 special Iowa State census George Forsythe is household #9 and Joseph Morrison is household #18.  As hard as I tried, I could not find a connection between the Wapello County Forsyth(e) line and the Davis County Forsythe line.  Then I happened upon a family tree that included the George Forsyth family, descendants and ancestors as had been assembled by another researcher [World Family Tree CD (Novato, California: Broderbund Software, Inc., 1997), Vol. 6, Tree #1430].  Low and behold, this tree showed that George had a sister Elizabeth born March 10, 1827 in Ireland.  However, this research had Elizabeth married to a John Morrison with no other information available.  A Morrison connection!  But could this be the same Elizabeth as married to Joseph above?  This family tree marriage information for Elizabeth and John came from a Forsyth family gathering in 1904 in Cass County, Iowa where Frances Forsyth Hayden, sister of Elizabeth and George, provided a family history of her Forsyth family unit.  She stated that Elizabeth married John in Pennsylvania in the winter of 1849 and that they moved along with other members of the Forsyth family, to Wapello County, Iowa in 1851.  Frances also stated that this Forsyth family came to America in 1843 and settled in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania until they moved to Iowa in 1851.

Images are somewhat large for readability.  Use the back arrow to navigate back to the originating Forsyth narrative page from the image pages, the group sheet page and the descendant chart page.