Ancestors and Family Stories

Week 4: Favorite Photo - Harding's Tomb It’s impossible to pick one favorite photo but I chose this one because it reminds me of what it was like to be 9 years old in the summer of 1950 and be on our first great family adventure. We lived on Long Island, New York and that summer my cousin Bill joined us for a road trip to Marion, Ohio in August to visit my step-mom’s parents and see all the sights along the way.   Cousin Bill Collins and me, 1950   This photo commemorates a morning visit to the tomb of the 29th President of the United States, Warren G. Harding (b.1865-d.1923) and his wife, Florence Mabel Harding (b.1860-d.1924). Bill Collins, my first cousin (on the left) and I had jumped out of the car when we arrived at the park. There was at least a quarter-mile long walkway between the parking area and the tomb. We ran ahead as kids do. Upon arriving at the circular memorial we ran up the polished granite stairs, stepped between large granite columns and came to a seven...

Week 3: Namesake - William McLaughlin My paternal grandfather was named William (NMI) McLaughlin, my father was William Addison McLaughlin and I am William Harry McLaughlin. I was named after both my grandfathers, William McLaughlin (Pop) and Harry Cook. I smile when I remember eating Thanksgiving family dinners at Pop’s house. My Aunt Grace, his daughter, did the cooking and she loved calling us all to the table because there were five of us there named William. All she had to do was holler out, “OK, Bill, come and get it!” My Grandfather, better known as Pop, connected me to a past that began at his birth in Norwalk, Connecticut in 1879. Our McLaughlin family, all but Pop, were born on Long Island, New York in Queens or Nassau County. Pop’s father was in shoe manufacturing and worked in Connecticut for a few years around the time of Pop’s birth. In the early 1880s the McLaughlins were all back in Queens County on the western end of Long Island. Pop’s first job as a teenager was w...

  Responding to Amy Johnson Crow's challenge "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" at her website, AMYJOHNSONCROW.COM Week 2: Family Legend - French General? My father, William A. McLaughlin (b.1908-d.2007) told me a family story passed orally to him by his father, William (Pop) McLaughlin (b.1879-d.1962). It focuses on Pop's grandmother, my 2nd great grandmother, by the name of Eliza Majit (b.1824-d.1902). Eliza reportedly lived the first twelve years of her life in a small village in a French border area next to Germany known as Alsace-Lorraine.  French and German governments had a long history of fighting over this rich agricultural area and each side ruling over its lands and citizens based on who won the last war. Terror was often applied to the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine to subdue them. Eliza experienced such terror in 1836 when German soldiers marched into her town and forcibly took control. The story is that a young village girl was walled up by the soldiers using br...

  Responding to Amy Johnson Crow's challenge "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" at her website, AMYJOHNSONCROW.COM Week 1: Beginnings - Grandma Cook My maternal grandmother had a painting of "Uncle Alexander" over her fireplace. He always gave me the creeps. He was a handsome young man dressed in a very old fashioned, dark frock coat with a white shirt and a large, flowing black cravat. I also remember the portrait background was an eerie shade of black. His piercing blue eyes followed me wherever I went in the room. I asked my grandmother who he was. She said he was Uncle Alexander who had never married and died young (b.1822-d.1850). She said he was actually her dad's uncle. Her dad, my great grandfather (b.1845-d.1919), was named Edward Alexander in his honor. Seeing I was interested, she regaled me with dashing stories about her dad's experiences during the Civil War. She brought out his Civil War sword and told me he had enlisted in the 13th New York Cavalr...