55 yr 4 mos 11 days

Information courtesy of familysearcher #47502388:

Andrew Jackson Ralston was the son of Joseph B. Ralston and Eleanor Smith Ralston of Brown County, Ohio.

He was the grandson of Christian Smith and Elizabeth McDuffy (or McDuffie) Smith of Brown County, Ohio.

He was the brother of Christian Smith Ralston (1814-1869) of Brown County, Ohio who relocated to Ripley County, Indiana with his family in 1842.

He was also the brother of Orpha Y. Ralston Grisham (1822-1895), Oliver Perry Ralston (1824-1901), Zorilda Ralston Evans (1829-1867), Almira Ralston and Matilda Jane Ralston (1836) and three other siblings who died young.

He was the father of Clayton M. Ralston, Leona Ralston Marble, William Willis Ralston, Berthenia Ralston Parmenter, Josephine Cassa Ralston Orr, Mary Eugenia Ralston Beaty, Andrew E. Ralston, Christopher Ralston, Lucetta C. Ralston Punneo, Elzada Tennie Ralston Arnold and Ossian Ralston.

Their first five children were born in Brown County, Ohio. Seven of his children lived out their lives in or around Fulton County, Illinois. Two migrated to Kansas, one to Nebraska and one to California.

He and his wife Nancy followed a migration pattern from Brown County, Ohio to Fulton County, Illinois in about 1850.

The Ralston family was allied and intermarried with the Martin and Fite families over generations, even before they immigrated to the United States.

His Ralston family was known as Scot-Irish, although they were not Irish at all. The family, staunch Presbyterians living in Scotland, was forced by the English King James to relocate to Ireland to develop the Protestant religion in Ireland and to counter the Roman Catholic uprisings in Ireland. These forcibly relocated Scots, including the Ralstons, were then the victims of violent religious persecution from both the Roman Catholic Irish and by the English, who wanted to force their Church of England religion on them. For this reason, they emigrated to America in the 1700's, first settling in Pennsylvania, where they hoped William Penn would be tolerant of their Presbyterian religion.

He survived his wife Nancy Jane Penny Ralston by ten years.