Michael and Ellen (Wallis) Flynn
Great-great grandparents Michael Flynn (1810-1870s) and Ellen Wallis Flynn (1809-1880s) were born in Ireland, but we do not know their specific county of origin. We also do not know the details pertaining to their marriage or exactly when they immigrated to America. What we do know is that by 1843 Michael and Ellen Flynn were living in the U.S. in the state of Massachusetts, where they gave birth to their first child, Michael.
We also know that within two years Michael and Ellen Flynn had managed to relocate over 1,000 miles away to the Town of Erin in Washington County, in the Wisconsin Territory (not yet a state). In 1845, they delivered their second son, Dennis, and in 1846 Michael was a registered voter in Erin. Of course, it would be another 75 years before citizens like Ellen would be allowed to vote. (I would love to know how Ellen and our other great-great grandmothers and our great grandmothers and our grandmothers felt about that condition).
Michael and Ellen Flynn lived on a relatively large farm (160 acres by the 1870s) near the foot of Holy Hill, a farm that would stay within the family and grow over the next several decades. While there, they gave birth to their third and fourth sons (no daughters), Edmond in 1847 and John in 1850. John would later become our great grandfather.
Michael Flynn died sometime in the 1870s, and Ellen Flynn and her oldest son, Michael, lived with another son, John, and his wife and kids for some uncertain number of years. It appears that Ellen Wallis Flynn died in Erin in the 1880s.