Page 6 - Armstrong Bloodline - ebook_Neat

that Mr. Depew was a VIP with the old Pontiac Motor Company before it became General Motors and that
they were apparently well-to-do. As I said above, some of what he related proved to be incorrect, but much of
what he recalled was close enough to give me several good leads.

I had a great deal of difficulty tracing the first 30 years of my grandfather's life as well as that of my great-
grandfather Alva D. Armstrong (whose name I discovered when I ordered a copy of Frank's death certificate in
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December of 1976) . As a result, I decided to try and follow up on the information given me by my father about
the other family members named Ransom, Rolla and Lillian, as well as keep my eyes open for any reference to
a Mamie Armstrong. I initially found Rolla in the 1900, 1910 and 1920 Federal Census' for North Dakota and
Lillian in the 1900 and 1920 Census' in Michigan. It was through these sources that I discovered that my great-
grandfather was born in Vermont and my great-grandmother in Indiana--this was new information, as my
grandfather Frank's death certificate had indicated that his parents had both been born in South Dakota. I had
spent a great deal of time unsuccessfully attempting to verify the South Dakota source, and now turned my
attention to Vermont. It was here that I discovered my great-great-great uncle Ransom S. Armstrong 3 & 4 .

As indicated above, my grandfather George Francis Frank Armstrong's death certificate shows that his father's
name was Alva D. Armstrong and his mother was Mary Cotton. By July 1994, my research had led me to
believe that great-grandfather Alva had probably left Vermont sometime around the middle of the 19th.
century and had lived for a time in Michigan (I found two Alvas, ages 16 and 17 in Parma, Jackson County,
Michigan, and one A. Armstrong, age 25 in Bunker Hill, Ingram County, Michigan in the 1860 Census. I
surmised that at some time around the Civil War he had moved on to Indiana where his wife, Mary, lived and
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where I had also discovered that his daughter, Lillian, had been born in June 1869 . From there he must have
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moved on to South Dakota where Census records had shown that his son Rolla had been born in 1871 ,
followed by the birth of my grandfather, Frank, three years later in 1874. However, at this time, I had been
unable to uncover anything substantive to back up my premise.

Another family source (Marlin Bloom) had recalled having heard that Frank's mother had died when he was
very young and that his father soon after remarried. Apparently a short period of time later, his father also
passed away and his stepmother remarried. The story goes that the family relationship became increasingly
abusive and that Frank and his older brother (Rolla), who were only about 10 to 13 few years old at the time,
both ran away from home. Another family source (I no longer recall who) indicated that they believed that
both great-grandparents Alva and Mary had died in Wahkon, MN. As a result, I decided to try and find a
professional genealogist to help me pursue these leads.

After writing to several genealogists and reviewing their credentials, I chose a lady in Stillwater, MN to assist
me. Over the next couple of months she provided me with several good bits of information relative to
Grandfather Frank and my father. However, in July, she came across a biography on a Jerome B. Armstrong
whose life and accomplishments had been summarized in the History of Page County (Iowa) that was
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published in 1909 . The biography also provides information about his father, David, and mother, Sarah
(Treadway) Armstrong. In addition, it provided some enticing clues about his brother, A. D. Armstrong who
was a civil war veteran from Michigan--was this great-grandfather Alva?

Near the end of September 1994, I finally got the break that all genealogist's dream of. Earlier in 1994 I had
become a member of an organization known as the Armstrong Clan Association. This organization was
established in 1969 (upon Neil Armstrong's historic landing on the moon) at the historical center of the old clan
territory, Mangerton in Liddesdale, Scotland, in an attempt to reestablish the Armstrongs as a Clan (albeit a
widely scattered one). After some months I contacted the Clan genealogist, William S. Armstrong of
Vancouver, WA, and he forwarded me a half-inch thick packet of genealogical information which went back to

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