Genealogy Is A Big Gamble - These Ancestors Are Not Co-Operating!

Mary Ann Bannon Tanner 1842-1923 Granddaughter Of Elizabeth Van Buskirk Bannon Davis. At long last (waiting since July) I received Mary Ann Bannon Tanner's death certificate from the State of Iowa. Her son, Elmer Austin Tanner was the informant and he said her father was Wm Bannon and her mother Mary A Bannon. I believe he was grasping at straws when the undertaker asked him these questions. Here I go out on a limb again -- gambling that my theory is correct. I am sure her father was John Bannon. She is an heir to John Van Buskirk's estate, along with the other children of John Bannon. At first I thought there may be another son of Elizabeth Van Buskirk Bannon Davis named William. I searched for any William Bannon in 1840, anywhere near the rest of the family in Mercer, Auglaize, or Union Counties Ohio. There is none. I searched for a William Bannon in any of the above counties, or elsewhere in Ohio. There is none.

Mary Ann Bannon Tanner apparently told her children she was born in New Dover, Union Co Ohio in 1842. This is entirely possible as Union is one of the counties this family lived in. But Mary Ann is in Auglaize Co, Ohio in 1850, age 8 with John and Margaret Bannon. Why would she be in Union County in 1859 when she married James H Tanner? I discovered that her aunt, Nancy Jane Davis Jenkins, is living next door to the Tanner family in 1850 Union Co Ohio! If my theory is correct and John and Margaret died 1850-1860, it is very likely that Mary Ann went to live with her aunt, Nancy Jenkins, and thus met and married James Tanner in 1859.

My conclusion, until further evidence shows me wrong, is that Mary Ann Bannon Tanner is the daughter of John and Margaret Bannon. Perhaps Elmer Austin Tanner remembered that his mother had a brother named William? That it was a good guess that she was named, Mary Ann, for her mother? What ever the answer, I am staying with my original premise. Yes, it is a big gamble when you order records that they will say exactly what you want them to. I have not had a winning hand for some time now -- but the cards aren't all dealt yet!!