Was John Surratt engaged to Miss Roose?

[Jim Woodall]

When I cam across the obit, it seemed odd to me that it would say so much about his sister and the troubles visited upon her. But, as Betty was indicating, the times were a bit different regarding connecting with the confederate past. Also, in the late 1800s/early 1900s people were reflecting more on their ancestors and including in their obits about strong family ties to history. I still am not sure many would go out of their way to connect to the Surratts especially implying the sister, who was not named, running off to the convent because of her engagement with John Surratt, Jr.

As I uncovered more info that matched up with the obit, I came to believe that whoever wrote it believed what they had written. I presume, the likely writer was the daughter, Mary, since her obit talks about being taught by her aunt, Sister Mary Benedicta. (see "The Daily Courier", Connellsville, PA, 7 Nov 1939 pg 4)

I presume that if the last parent of William and Sarah Roose died around 1845 that it was about that time or shortly thereafter that Sarah would have been at the Surratts' house over at Oxon Run. She does not show up in the 1850 census over there or elsewhere, so far. I would be surprised that an orphan from Baltimore would end up at Oxon Run unless they were related somehow.

Further more, Sarah Roose and John Surratt Jr., would have to reconnect at a later time to become engaged. I wonder if that happened when John was in school in Baltimore before John left to go back to the tavern.

Back to obits in the late 1800s and early 1900s, how much of what is said in those obits would you take as correct or probable when these obits seemed to inflate the ancestry lines. I know I have a couple of obits from the late 1890s within my ancestry that both claim a connection to a certain Captain Richard Anderson of the Maryland line from the Revolutionary War but haven't yet found further supporting info. How far did people at the turn of that century exaggerate the importance of their ancestry?