It's another Saturday, so it's time for another surname study. This week we'll take a look at another line where I only know of one person with the surname. Today's surname is Cranston, as in Margaret Cranston of Ireland.
Margaret Cranston was my fifth great grandmother. She was born circa 1749 in Ireland and died in 1773, also in Ireland. In 1766, Margaret married John Francis III (b. either in 1733 or circa 1745, in Ireland; d. 10 May 1814, Ireland) and they had three children that I know of: James Francis (M; b. 9 Oct 1767; d. 3 Aug 1807), William Francis (M; b. 3 Oct 1769; d. 13 Oct 1825) and Jane Francis (F; b. 28 Sep 1771, Ireland; m. 7 May 1794 to Alexander Meharry III, d. 13 Aug 1844, Indiana). I have not found Margaret's parents or if she had any siblings yet, but the book "The History of Will County, Illinois" (Chicago, 1878, Wm. Le Baron, Jr., & Co.) suggests that Margaret was of Scottish descent.
In a quick look around the interwebs while preparing this post for today, I found that a reprint of "History of the Meharry Family in America" (1925, Lafayette Printing Company), where Margaret is mentioned on page 13, is available at a reasonable price, so I've ordered a copy. There is a copy of this book in the Wisconsin Historical Society library, where I first learned of the connection to Margaret, and it will be nice to have my own copy.
Obviously the next steps for research on this line are to find out more about Margaret and work back to find her parents. Since the Will County history mentions that she may have been Scottish, I'll see what I can find on that migration path. I know that the Meharrys came through County Cavan, Ireland, so that's another lead to finding out more about the Cranstons.
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