Family Lore (#52Ancestors Week 1)

 #52Ancestors

Week 1 – Family Lore

After I began researching and learned more about the family of my paternal grandmother (Frances Burgess McDonald), I told her that her great-grandmother’s name was Dorcus James.  Her immediate reply was, “Oh, I’ve always been told that we were related to the Jameses.”  I didn’t realize who she meant until I talked to other James researchers who had heard that we were related to Jesse James.  However, Frank and Jesse James’s family came from Virginia to Kentucky to Missouri (their father was born in Kentucky in 1818), and Dorcus James (b. 1813) was from South Carolina, so I seriously doubt there is any connection.  Most likely, having an ancestor with the surname of James was enough to claim kinship to the famous outlaws. 

My maternal great-grandfather (born in 1890 in Kentucky) was named Frank and his brother was named James.  I have been told that they were named for the outlaws, but that it was intentionally done subtly.

Another bit of family lore, this time on David’s side, is that his mother said a cousin invented the elevator (she gave me this tidbit after we watched “Kate & Leopold”).  She didn’t remember who it was, so I really had no way to research it.  A few years later, she had a DNA match with a cousin who had been adopted and was searching for her family.  Amy lived not too far away, so we were able to meet her for lunch one day.  As we were exchanging information, she pulled out an envelope of pictures that someone in her birth family had sent.  One of the pictures showed Amy’s biological grandfather standing next to a large piece of equipment.  Ruth asked if that was an airplane part, and Amy said, “No, it’s part of an elevator.  My grandfather had an elevator company in south Florida.”  Ruth and I looked at each other and our mouths dropped open.  Amy’s grandfather was the husband of Mary Krajewska, who was Ruth’s father’s first cousin.  So he didn’t exactly invent the elevator, but he did design and build them!