Blish - Blush

So, I’m taking a break from the Mallette side of my mother’s family to research the “Blish” side. I have learned that Blish and Blush were interchangeable many generations back contributing to mass confusion and adding to the need for a wall of post-it notes. I first run into the undecided spelling of the last name with Joseph Blish/Blush, Jr. (1762-1848). This interchanging of last names was detrimental in Joseph’s application for pension for his service during the Revolutionary War, his claim was rejected due to no service records being found - under the spelling of Blush. But, they are there under the spelling of Blish, a discovery made in 1902 by a family researcher writing a book on the “Blish” family. When reading his pension records, under the name Blush, I see that a contributing factor could quite possibly be due to penmanship, and probably just the family not being consistent.  I believe as the researcher in 1902 that this Joseph Blush is the same Joseph Blish that is great great grandfather to my  great grandmother Margarite Rose Blish Mallette Rash, my mother’s grandmother.  In the records at the National Archives that hold the original documents is the annotation of the researcher in 1902 and the records are now cross filed under Blish too.  Also within the pension records are two documents attesting to the service of Joseph, one from his daughter Almira and one from his son Oliver, another validation that these two Josephs are one in the same.  I have discovered two books on the family. Interestingly, one for each spelling of the name and both documented with various resources that are similar. So, when researching this line my suggestion is to try both spellings….Blish….Blush…happy hunting.

Middletown, Delaware County, New York

It looks quite possible that two family lines (one on my mom’s side and one on my dad’s side) lived in the same community in New York. The Blish and the Graham families, ghee what a small world it was a couple hundred years ago.

The Civil War, it can be such a small world.

Imagine my surprise when researching the Blish side (on my mother’s side) of my family when I see that the brother in-law (Capt Theodore Lane) of my relative, Alfred Day Blish, served under my great x3 grandmother’s Roxcenia (Butterfield) Dickisson (on my father’s side) brother’s (Charles Butterfield) regiment. Wow, that was a mouth full.  There was no easy way to type that all out without a chalk board, I’m limited to electronic pen and paper here.  And, he was mustered out in Missouri when my  great great grandfather John W. Cullimore (on my father’s side) was at Jefferson Barracks too. I was  researching Alfred and stumbled upon a lengthy section on his brother in-law and sister (Caroline Melissa Blish) in “Commemorative Biographical Record of Prominent and Representative Men of Racine and Kenosha counties, Wisconsin: containing biographical sketches of business and professional men and of many of the early settled families”, J.H. Beers & Co, 1906.    

Mallette

What an elusive family you are!  In hopes to learn more about my direct family line I try researching  my great grandfather’s brothers, no luck with his sisters yet. I find information on some them, but John Paul, or Paul John, why can’t I find out more about you? I know where you are buried and that according to a 1930 census you remarried.  Whatever happened to her?  Your father Peter is just as mystifying. I lost track of him in Bangor, New York.

 

I’m amazed at the number of divorces in this family. It could very well be that not only did my grandfather divorce my grandmother and his father did divorced my Great Grandmother Margarite but it seems that my Great Great Grandfather could have possibility too? I hope that is not the case. Alphronia Dwyer where are you? Did you die at an early age, move to Canada, left the family?

 

I’ve not given up yet…the hunt for puzzle pieces continues!

Margarite Rose and George Orville Blish

I discovered today that brother and sister Blish married brother and sister Mallette. My Great grandmother Margarite married Paul John (or John Paul, birth certificate and death certificates contradict each other) Mallette and her brother, Orville, married his sister Elizabeth J. Mallette.