#191--Sisters--Staying Together

The theme for this week is sisters. My great grandmother, Charity Mears,  had five sisters, they are part of my ancestry tree that I call the tribe and that I have written about before.  I think of them as a tribe because they tended to stay together.

This time I want to look at who they married and see if there were relationships among their husbands.

So the first thing I needed was a listing of the sisters and brothers and their spouses, which I obtained from an earlier blog.

 Mary Mears ((1786-1873)—Lemuel Boyle Sayer
Elizabeth Mears (1796—1880)—Jonathan Shreve
Catherine Mears (1799-1888)—Robert Legate (1802—1822)  and  Israel Donnelson Sayre (1807-1849)
Nancy Mears (1801-1883)—George Newell (1798-1875)
Jane Mears (1803-1878)—Jesse Stephenson (1804—1828)and David Calvin (1800/1810—1845)
Charity Mears (1806—1842)—John M. Hannah (1799-1842)
Sarah Jane Mears (1808-1899)-- George Fisher (1807-190)
William Mears (1799-1873)--Sarah Newell (180--1873).

There are several last names in common.  Were they related? I found that Lemual Boyle Sayres and Israel Sayers were brothers.  They were born in Brown County Ohio to Dennis and Hester (Donaldson) Sayres. Lemuel Remained in Brown County, while Israel moved to Edgar County, Illinois.

The Newells--George and Sarah--were brother and sister.  They were both born in Brown County.  Their parents were William Morris and Sarah (Paul) Newell.  Goerge and Nancy moved to Deer Park Illinois.  William and Sarah lived in several places in Indiana and then Ripley, Iowa.

I do know know how common it was for two sisters to marry two brothers.  I think it might have not been unusual in areas where the population was not large and therefore, there would have not been many choices in terms of spouses. I would like to talk to them to find how why these marrages took place.