Sunday, April 5, 2009

Where are the Sharps?

Gibson Condie
Listening to General Conference, I heard President Monson share the story of his ancestors, Gibson and Cecilia Sharp Condie, from Clackmannanshire. Our Hunter line comes from Clackmannanshire and Jean Patterson Sharp Hunter, the mother of Elezebeth Grace Mulholland Toone, is the connection to President Monson's line. But how?

I jumped onto the web first. Confirmed the names I had heard and found a website about his family and their journey to America. http://emily.farrer.googlepages.com/sharpandcondiedatesandplaces
Lots of similar names, Janet, Adam, Cooks and Hunters mixed in with the Sharps and Condies. But do any of them belong to us?

Adam's family would have been contemporaries of Gibson Condie's family. He traveled to America in July, 1849 with his brother and Thomas Sharp. The family joined him later. Gibson Condie traveled with his family for America earlier that same year - January, 1848.

I went to my Ancestry.com file and the new Family Search tree- looking for the Sharp family to see if I could find a common name to link the families.

I've now discovered a research problem for someone to take on. Two conflicting lines.

Adam Hunter
The question to answer is: Who are Adam Patterson Hunter's maternal grandparents? I have two possible choices.

Are they David Patterson and Janet Sharp? This introduces the Sharp line but there are no records for Janet's parentage. This is my Ancestry.com file.

Or are they George Paterson and Elisabeth Blair?

If anyone in the family has source records to confirm either family line - the parents of Margaret Patterson (1794 - 1854) please let me know! I'll put it in my questions to answer log in the meantime.

Until we confirm this, I can't confirm how we may be related to President Monson.

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