Saturday, May 28, 2011

more ancient history



Speaking of historical documentation, here are three of Cecelia Young's great-great granddaughters in the home of her granddaughter Marie Smith Maguire. My grandmother married into a fairly well-to-do family - my grandfather Martin Maguire's father was a successful liquor merchant (who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918), and his mother was a Wolfington of the carriage builders Alexander Wolfington, Son & Company. Another fun genealogical fact - I'm the great-great-great granddaughter of John Wolfington, a sea captain from Nova Scotia. Unlike my great-great grandfather William Young, John Wolfington was not a ne'er-do-well, although if Willie the Whaler is any example he probably drank quite a bit.

Mae Wolfington did not like my grandmother, quite possibly because of her lower class background, but gave my grandparents a house anyway. It's on Robbins Avenue in Philadelphia and my grandmother donated it to a cancer organization on her death in 1987.

My cousin Tina posted this to her Facebook page and I couldn't resist posting it here. That's Tina on the left, me on the right, and my sister Eileen in front. Eileen is now the wife of a school principal, mother of twin girls and has a very successful career as a salewoman for American Greetings Co. She's been working for American Greetings since she got out of college. So she's a paragon of middle-class success and stability - but this picture captures what she was like back then. The "imma cut a bitch" expression in this photo was not unusual for the time, as I recall.