Chasing Leonards

I'd sent off for the death record from the Cheboygan Co. MI library of a John Leonard in hopes that this would be THE John Leonard who was an Uncle of Thomas H. Leonard(Jim's Direct line) & living in Thomas H.'s household in the 1900 census. You can read my earlier post here. I don't want to go down the wrong road in this research but the age and location is certainly right on the money for it to be his Uncle. From the Death Info I learned that this John Leonard was a widowed farmer and was the son of Hugh Leonard & Dorothy Downey. This doesn't tell me for certain that this John Leonard is the one I'm looking for as I don't know for certain who Thomas H. Leonards parents were. It is progress though in that I can see if there is a trail from the Hugh Leonard & Dorothy Downey that might lead to Thomas H. Leonard's Dad.

Song my grandma sang

I consider myself lucky to have had two grandparents who lived to be over 100 years old. My maternal grandfather died a few days shy of what would have been his 102nd birthday. My paternal grandmother lived a few months beyond her 102nd birthday. My parents married later than average and were both the next to the youngest child in their family. This meant that by the time I was born, my grandparents were in their early 80s. I did start my research in 1990 at the age of 22 which at that time was a bit of an early age for interest in genealogy. However, by that time my grandparents were not in the best health and state of mind for remembering. I woke up this morning realizing that I did not remember that much about my grandparents heritage that had been passed down from them and not just from what I had learned about their families through my own research. It's too late to ask what they remembered from their childhood. My paternal grandmother's parents(The Jakes) raised horses in Bedford Co. TN. These great grandparents descended from JAKES, HARGER, MORROW, FRIZZELL, & MANLEY families. I don't remember much about my early childhood but I do remember parts of a song that my grandmother used to sing when she bounced one of my brothers on her knee. I think it might be an Irish tune though I'm not sure whether its a lullaby or a drinking song. I tried Googling the words I remembered but most of the hits didn't call up anything that looked remotely similar. The words I remember, and I don't think that she was singing all of the lyrics, were "Dee Dee Diddle To rah riddle....long summer day".

My Next Step in Searching for Jim's Leonard Line

I had written in an earlier post about Jim's Leonard lines and finding a John Leonard living next door to possibly his brother and nephews. I know that Jim's Thomas Leonard lived in Cheboygan Co. MI & had his Uncle John Leonard living with him in 1900. The death index showed a John Leonard dying in Cheboygan Co. MI in 1901 who would have been the correct age to have been this guy & the one from the 1880 census. I've sent off a lookup request(on July 29) to the library there and am hoping to prove or disprove that.