Thompson, Sutton, Birdsall Family
Submitted by Marilyn J. White
Huron County Ohio First Family Member #184

         Smith Thompson and his wife Elizabeth were from New York. Their three children were all born in Orange County , N. Y. but came with their parents to Huron County , Ohio in 1834. Their son, Samuel Thompson, was born in 1815 and married Charlotte Burnham in Norwalk, Ohio in 1850. They had two children: Leroy B. (born 1852) who married Lottie Garland of Ann Arbor, Mich. and had one daughter, Orcie May; and Lillie (born about 1857) who married Roland Fay and had two sons, Harry and Claude. Smith's daughter, Jane Thompson, was born about 1824 and married Henry Gerow in Townsend, Ohio. They had two children, Lucy and Wallace, both of whom never married, but lived a11 their lives in Huron County, Ohio. Smith' s other son, William who was born about 1817, went to live in Saginaw, Mich. where he farmed and worked as a lumberman. In the 1880's he and his family moved to Arroyo Grande, California. Leroy and Lottie settled in Saginaw where Leroy worked for his uncle William. When William moved to California, Leroy and Lottie and their daughter, Orcie May, moved to Norwalk near Samuel, Leroy's widowed father.  Charlotte Burnham Thompson died in 1895. Leroy and Lottie separated in 1902. In 1903 Samuel, at 88, was so upset over his "wayward" son's treatment of Lottie that he killed Leroy, then killed himself. Lottie's daughter, Orcie May married George R. Sutton in 1901.  Orcie May and George Sutton had three daughters, Ruth, Esther, and Helen. Lottie Thompson, Orcie May, George, and Helen Sutton remained in Norwalk all their lives. Ruth and Esther moved to Cleveland after they married.

        Henry Sutton and his wife Laurinda Sackett were married about 1825 in New York. They settled in Greenwich, Ohio in 1830 and raised ten children. Their fifth child, James Riley Sutton, was born in 1835 and married Amelia Birdsall in 1857. They had four children: A. Ernestine who married Spencer Prosser, Clarence who married Nelle James, Alda who remained single, and George who married Orcie May Thompson. Ernestine and George remained in Huron County, Alda lived in Norwalk and Cleveland, Clarence settled in Akron.

        Zephaniah S. Birdsall was born in 1802 in Orange County , N. Y. He married Ann H. Barrett of New York. Their two daughters, Helen (born 1835) and Amelia (born 1840) were born in New York but the Birdsalls had moved to Greenwich, Ohio about 1830. Following Ann's death in 1851, Zephaniah married Huldah M. Coutant about 1860 in Huron County and they had four children: Caroline, Ella, Ina, and Frederick. The Birdsalls were of Quaker ancestry.

        Orcie May Thompson and George Sutton were my grandparents. Lottie and Leroy Thompson, and Amelia and James Riley Sutton were my great-grandparents. Charlotte Burnham and Samuel Thompson, Laurinda Sackett and Henry Sutton, Ann Barrett and Zephaniah Birdsall, and were my second great-grandparents, and Elizabeth and Smith Thompson were my third great-grandparents. Nine ancestors from Huron. County Ohio!