Surname Saturday: Allen

So today I'm going to start an overview of each of the surnames that I'm researching, looking at each surname one at a time.  I'll start with the names in my own lines first, going in alphabetical order.  That means that today we'll look at how the Allen surname connects into my research.


I don't have a lot on this line yet, mostly because it hasn't been a focus of my research yet.  The nearest Allen connection in my direct ancestors is Elva Allen (also known as Eva Allen in some records), my 2nd-great grandmother.  She was born on 21 October 1861, a daughter of John Allen.  On 17 November 1881 she married Josiah Nathan Beach near Darlington, Montgomery County, Indiana.  Together Josiah and Elva had four children that I know of: Arthur Austin Beach (M, b. 20 Aug 1882, d. 1965), Emerson Asa Beach (M, b. 27 Feb 1884, d. 6 Mar 1956), Estella Lavona Marie Beach (F, b. 14 June 1887, d. 21 Mar 1961), and Everett Josiah Beach (M, b. 23 Aug 1889, d. 13 May 1960).  Elva died on 14 December 1914.

Beyond this basic information, the only other data that I have is a photo of her.  She sat as one of the family members in a family reunion photograph dated circa 1890.  I wrote about this photograph and that I only have ten of the 28 people identified a few weeks ago.

So since Elva Allen is a direct ancestor, why haven't I researched this line further?  The only reason I can come up with is that there haven't been any family legends passed down to me about this line.  As far as I know, there aren't any really famous people on this line further back, I don't know of any military service, distinguished or otherwise, there weren't any ghost stories, and I haven't seen any artifacts from this line.  In other words, other lines were more interesting.  I guess it's time to get working on this line.