The past comes alive when a novice starts looking at his roots

My family -- on both my mother's and my father's side -- has never been much interested in its ancestry. I've mentioned this before, but I think the reason was simple: They were consumed with surviving and didn't put much stock in digging into the past.

Maybe that's a good thing. After all, every family has a story or two about the bad seed who everyone remembers but doesn't like to talk about.

Mine included, as it turns out.

I have a slew of cousins on my mother's side of the family who have taken a more recent interest in genealogy. Unfortunately, the best sources -- my mother, her sisters, their brother -- are all gone now. I remember that Thanksgiving Day nearly 20 years ago when we sat my mother, uncle and aunt down after dinner and begged them to answer questions we all had about our ancestors. A huge argument broke out, causing a lot of hurt feelings. That was the end of our rooting in our roots for the time being.

I haven't had a recent update on all that genealogical activity in recent years. I do know that some of our ancestors, who came to America in the 1600s, have been located. The story is they were Swiss and left their homeland because of religious persecution, winding up in Holland for a while before emigrating to America. They were always called "the Dutch" side of the family, and now we have a likely explanation.

My father's side of the family is a little less clear, although serious genealogical researchers from around here have managed to follow a few threads of interest.

One of the problems with my father's side of the family is the mishmash of names that overtook the family in my great-grandfather's generation. My great-grandfather was Joseph Siliven -- Siliven, not Sullivan. He had siblings who were Sullivan, Siliven, Silliven and Sulivant. Honest to Pete. Their father was Ezekial George Jasper Sullivan, and his father -- my great-great-great-grandfather -- was Jonathan B. Sullivan. Now I have learned my great-great-great-great-grandfather was Ezekial Sullivan, born in 1770. So I'm pretty sure Sullivan is the family name, except for that one generation of spelling mishaps.

My mother once suggested that the surname circus was due to illiteracy. Maybe those folks simply didn't know how to spell. That went over not so well among the Sullivan clan.

Much of what I've just told you is the result of a recent visit by my best friend in college. Many years ago he moved to Salt Lake City and became a devout Mormon. While he was here, our conversation about our family histories led him to suggest the Mormon website (familysearch.org). He said it was the best site for family research, and it's free. So a few days later I gave the website a visit. Sure enough, I was quickly able to learn a lot of stuff.

For example, I knew about my great-great-granddaddy Jasper, but for the first time I learned of Jonathan B. and Ezekial. The most interesting finding, for me, was discovering that the family name appears to be solidly in the Sullivan camp.

Now the "bad seed" story. Genealogical websites are filled with infobits supplied by well-meaning folks, usually relatives. But there is no guarantee of accuracy. I found this notation about one of my Sullivan ancestors -- Jasper -- that didn't make me so proud.

According to some researcher, there is family lore that Jasper and two partners were involved in bootlegging. Exactly where is unclear. Ripley County? Kentucky? In any event, Jasper and one of his buddies got into a dispute with the third partner, and Jasper and his ally resolved the dispute by poisoning the third fellow, resulting, I suppose, in his demise.

So Jasper fled Ripley County or Kentucky or wherever and attempted to disappear into the Ozarks. He looked for the end of the earth and found it in a small community still known as Jewett in Madison County where that county connects with Iron and Wayne counties. It's easy to find, if you know where to cross Crane Pond Creek.

Apparently, Jasper got away with his crime. And maybe that explains the switcheroo in names in the next generation. Just maybe.

Joe Sullivan is the retired editor of the Southeast Missourian.