The Sunto Family



In the 1800’s a Mr. and Mistress Sunto with their five children, decided to come to America from the Land of the Dutch. It is supposed they were Hollanders but they definitely called themselves Dutch. The father Sunto died at sea. The ship landed at New Orleans after a terrible voyage across the Atlantic.



The story is told that the Mother was ordered to give away her children to families who would take them to the docks. The names of the children were: Thaddius, who was about 15, Elizabeth who was 13, Catherine, age unknown and another boy and two girls whose ages are unknown. They heard the youngest child died. The story goes that the Captain took the Mother Sunto back with him on the boat and Elizabeth and Catherine remembered seeing their Mother crying as her children were taken away from her.

Thaddius stayed in New Orleans and made his own way. Elizabeth was given to a Mr. and Mrs. Heard who took her to Jackson, Mississippi, where she grew up and married John Keack. Catherine was reared by another Jackson, Mississippi family. She married and moved to Tyler Co., Texas where she reared her family. The other sister married a Mr. Manry. The fifth child supposedly died early. Thirteen covered wagons brought the family to Texas.



The Suntos were ancestors of Nancy Elizabeth Keack Zeagler or Zeigler or Ziegler.