A New Detective Story to Track Down

 I have yet another intriguing bit of family history to explore, and to find that, though it may pertain just as equally to other parts of the country, as we say here in the south, "I'm so southern, I'm related to myself."

My maternal great-grandmother Florence Elizabeth McKee's parents were Nelson Reed McKee (1838-1908) and Sarah Ann Sunderland (1848-1922).  Sarah Ann Sunderland's parents were Benjamin Sunderland (1813-1890) and Margaret Emeline Weller (1814-1910).  Her siblings were John Wesley Sunderland (1835-1914), Mary Elizabeth Sunderland (1838-1926), Joseph Robbins Sunderland (1840-1911), Peter Sunderland (1844-1904), and Margaret Emeline Sunderland (1856-1921).

The mystery?  The above is in my mother's line.

The mystery is that a Sunderland shows up also in my father's line.  A great-great-granduncle, Major Wellman Packard (1820-1903), mentions his brother-in-law N. S. Sunderland in a letter to another correspondent.  Major (his first name, not a military rank) Wellman Packard had 12 siblings, including my great-great grandfather, Mathew Hale Packard (1822-1881).  Among those siblings were several who remained in Canada, where they had all been born  A goodly portion of them, with spouses and children, had gone to the United States and ended up in Bloomington, Illinois after the Civil War.  I have not found a Sunderland among them yet, but according to M. W. Packard, there was at least one. 

So far, there is little indication of where the Sunderland connection lies in my father's line.  It is a good bet N. S. Suncerland will be found in the United States rather than among the siblings who stayed in Canada.  Wellman Packard mentions that N. S. had "just returned from Ohio," presumably to Illinois, where Wellman Packard and his correspondent both lived.  I'm chasing my Sunderlands among my mother's ancestors, both collateral and direct.  That's going to take a while, because those Sunderlands were prolific. This could all be a wild-goose chase with no resulting connection between Mom's Sunderlands and the one in Dad's line.  But I'll at least get some more progress on my maternal Sunderlands, if nothing else.  

Sounds like a win to me.