Ellen Ambrose : Short Biography

Ellen Ambrose was born in 1839 in southwestern County Limerick, the daughter of George Ambrose and Ellen Collins. 

She and her siblings - Mary (1837), Frances (1841), Catherine (1843), and John (1845) - were baptized in Kilcolman Church which is a short distance north of Ardagh.  George was a farmer and had a small plot of land at Ballyvoghan.  Not much else is known about him and and his wife Ellen since there are no baptism, marriage or death records for them.  However, they must have died when the children were still relatively young because an uncle supposedly raised them.  There was a large number of Ambrose farmilies concentrated in the area around Ardagh and Newcastle West. 

Ellen, Frances and John immigrated to the US in the 1860s, and by 1870, the three of them were living in Springfield, Illinois.  There is no additional information about their sisters Mary and Catherine.  Ellen married Timothy Sullivan from Rathkeale, not far from Ardagh, in Springfield in 1870.  It is not known if they knew each other before they left Ireland or met in Springfield.  They had five children.  Timothy worked as a roadmaster for the railroad, and the family lived in various locations in Missouri and Illinois before coming back to Springfield in their later years.  Timothy died in 1919 and Ellen in 1920.