Flipside: April 2025

Amy Johnson Crow has a 52 Ancestors Week blog challenge which I have decided to give a try for the second year.

The prompt for week # 15 is Big Mistake.

One of my biggest mistakes was deciding which Cannon brother in Columbiana County, Ohio in the early 1800's was my maternal great great great grandfather. Of the four, John, Thomas, Lindsey and Matthew, I decided on John.

Garrett with John Cannon, Jr.

Ken with John A. Cannon
Clarkson Presbyterian Church Cemetery
Clarkson, Middleton Township
Columbiana County, Ohio

Oddly, I was going through my hard copy Cannon files to digitize them and there was all my research on the wrong Cannon. I laughed at the pictures of John Cannon's tombstone which we visited on a memorable family Christmas Eve drive to Columbiana County in 1993 and, it appears, we were there a second time when there was no snow.

My Fife line descends from first cousins who married. John Fife the son of William Fife, Sr. and Elizabeth Fife the daughter of John Fife, Sr. William and John Fife were brothers. One of John and Elizabeth's daughters was Elizabeth Fife who married Lindsey Cannon.

Researching the Fife Family requires a great deal of patience as in each generation the same names repeat ad nauseum.

I tied myself to John Cannon as my ancestor until another researcher sent me the above information taken from a turn of the twentieth century Fife Family reunion document. Holy Toledo! I've linked myself to the wrong Cannon. I think this happened as I was a newbie to genealogy and saw both John and Lindsey had daughter's named Nancy Cannon. Nancy married to William Morland Orr is my maternal great great grandmother. I had originally chosen the wrong Cannon brother as her father and my ancestor.

Lindsey's tombstone in Elkrun Township
Carlisle Cemetery
Fall 1993

Christmas Eve visit 1993
Up righted with crowbar in photo

I had seen the broken tombstone of Lindsey Cannon on a trip to the Carlisle Cemetery with my mother. We drove there because my maternal great great great grandfather Joseph Orr and his son, William Morland Orr, my maternal great great grandfather are buried there. Seeing a Cannon tombstone was a bonus. Although at that time, I considered him my great great great-granduncle.

When the family was on the Christmas Eve sojourn to Columbiana County, Ohio in 1993 we again visited the Carlisle Cemetery. We had a crowbar with us to set Lindsey's tombstone into an upright position. Below are some of my notes from the journal of that trip.

"There are seven graves in the Orr row--all relatives. In the front row of the Carlisle Cemetery is Lindsey Cannon's (John Cannon's brother) grave. His tombstone had broken off and fallen forward into the ground. Ken, Jeff and Ted were able to pry the tombstone out of the snow, ice and dirt with the crowbar and prop it up on the base at the grave sight."

Now, looking into Flipside, I notice I have covered two of the four Cannon brothers. With all the research I did on John A. Cannon, perhaps I should get busy and blog about my maternal great great great-granduncle.

And, a blog on the Christmas Eve in Columbiana County.

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