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I'm looking for my father who may have been a pilot who was killed in the first quarter of 1945 in England. Here's the story: My mother ran away when she was 16 and married a man who reportedly flew off to England within two weeks of the wedding. She lived in Elyria Ohio. My grandfather had the marriage annuled. When it became apparant that she was pregant, my grandfather disowned her. She went to live in an unwed mother's home in Cleveland. When she had me in October of 1945, my grandfather took me from her without her consent and gave me to his lawyer who had also arranged for the annulment. My adoptive father sealed up all the records so I still can't get to them. I just found my mother's family in time for Thanksgiving last year - her birthday. Unfortunately, my mother died last July, before I could get to her. My sister tells me that my mother and her second husband spent many years and thousands of dollars looking for me, without success. They got close to me once but my adoptive parents took me to Arizona, where I grew up. My sister once knew my father's name but she lost it. She thinks his name may have been Gilchrist, from the Cleveland area. I have thought of starting to call all of the Gilchrists in that area, but I hate to upset families when I have so little to go on. My mother's name was Nancy Ann Briggs. My birth name was Carolyn Lee Briggs. If my story rings a bell, could you let me know? Any help you could give me would be very much appreciated.
Here is some of the information that I have collected on the Gilchrist of Mississippi. My Great-Great Grandfather was John Gilchrist. I have no record of his birth or death. I only know where he is buried. He had 9 children. They are Frank, Millard, Whatt, Carmack, George, Minnie, Mary, Innar, and Emma. My Great Grandfather ,Frank Gilchrist, was born on 3 August 1885 and died 24 December 1924. Frank had 3 children. They are Lonnie, Roxie, and Opal. My Grandfather, Lonnie Cleveland Gilchrist, was born in 1908 and died 21 August 1981. Lonnie had 3 children. They are Lonnie Jr.(L.C.), Ann, and Josie. My Father, Lonnie Cleveland Gilchrist Jr., was born 7 May 1945 and is still living. Lonnie(L.C.) had 3 children. They are Belinda, Rodney, and Ronnie. I am Rodney Gilchrist and I was born 24 September 1968. I have 1 child and his name is Nicholas Ryan Gilchrist. He was born 29 March 1997. I am looking for information from anyone about a John Gilchrist who came from ????? and end up in Iuka, Mississippi. Thanks for including me on your email listing.
The FAMILIES of William and Alexander GILCHRIST of Kilsyth, Scotland and West Charlton, N. Y. AND As Part II, a complete list of the descendants of JOHN GILCHRIST, JR. (a grandson of William)and his wife, Jane Ann Mairs Gilchrist; who, together, constitute one of the four American Gilchrist families which can trace to these Scots-born brothers, and their Scottish ante- cedants. by James Montgomery Gilchrist, Jr. 1964 (One hundred copies printed) >>>>>>until we put it on the internet!!! PREFACE Last year I compiled "The 1963 Descendants of James Mairs and Mary Lucinda Foster GILCHRIST", my grandparents. Grandmother had three older half-sisters. Only one had descendants and that entire line died with Granville F. Ingraham in 1927. All are buried at Oak Woods. Grandfather, a great-grandson of William, had a brother and two sisters. Because I have enjoyed the descendants of these kin whom I have known; the next logical step seemed to me to be to compile a list of all my Gilchrist great- grandparents' descendants with the towns where they live. Researching for this purpose; I have been able to delve into material in a 14av I could not earlier, much of it coming to hand only as my earlier work was being finished and still more only recently. As I did so, it became clear I could do better than my original intent. Clarifying back to William and Alexander, so far as my material permitted, became a possibility; and of interest, if only so that we might know with which other Heirs-of-the-Name we might have American connection. Reversing the starting order, the historical descent to John Gilchrist, Jr. is Part I and the list of his descendants is Part II. This work could not have been written except for the careful, thoughtful scholarship Harriet Foster Gilchrist put into her 1915 Foster-Gilchrist Book. The Gilchrist half of her book contains much on the Mairs-Montgomery and other connec- tions through which we are allied to a variety of New York State families. To confine this booklet to its purpose of tracing direct Gilchrist lineage, I have omitted this collateral information. The immediate background of Jane Ann Mairs Gilchrist is, however, in point. (Note: For the benefit of non-family, M-a-i-r-s is pronounced MARS.) Jane Ann was the sixth and last child of Thomas Mairs and his wife Margaret Montgomery Mairs. Her brothers were Thomas and John. Her sisters; Margaret (who married John A. Gilchrist), Sarah and Maria. Her father was a merchant who fled Ireland for political reasons with his wife and two brothers, James and George, both Presbyterian ministers. James served the Associate Reformed Church of West Charlton for forty years. George, similarly, long-served the church at Argyle, New York where he, Thomas and Margaret Montgomery Mairs are buried. A Mairs sister, Sarah, married Thomas Crothers of West Charlton. Margaret Montgomery Mairs was the daughter of William Montgomery, a barrister of Armagh. A brother, also William, was later a barrister in charge of the affairs of Castle Blayney. Her three other brothers came to America. Samuel and John were physicians in New York. Samuel was an associate of Valentine Mott and other dig- nitaries; John, coming just before the 1812 War, signed on a warship which was not heard from after sailing. All we know of the fourth brother is that he was the father of Mrs. McDonough, and thought to have been named, George. Except where noted, the family historical background is drawn entirely from the Foster-Gilchrist Book, as are all quotations not otherwise ascribed specifically or by context. I am grateful, however, to Doris Bullard Duncan, Edgar Fitch Bullard and Howard Bullard for reading what is now Preface and Part I in the second draft to assure that the facts, and particularly the conclusions drawn in the absence of clear facts relative to Alexander's line, accorded with their remembrance. Their Grandmother, Sarah Maria Gilchrist Young, lived in West Charlton until her death in 1927; and none of the rest of the living family has had so ready and long-continuing access to the West Charlton and Galway communities. The original William Gilchrist homestead -- which William had as a grant from George III before the Revolution and to which he and Esther returned permanently after the Revolution -- was last owned by Doris and John Duncan and did not pass out of the family until about the time of John's death. The material read by the Bullard cousins was read in its later form by the senior born-Gilchrist of our line, Mary Lucinda Gilchrist. The term "born-Gil- christ" is used only to indicate extent of association and possible memory. Her brother-in-law, Harmon Potter, shared in the reading. I am deeply grateful to these stalwart cousins for their co-operative interest, help and encouragement; and, equally, for their suggestions and corrections. Moreover I am also very much obliged to Edgar Bullard for sending, in addition to the original of the document mentioned in the opening paragraphs of Part I (which I had first in photostat from Doris Duncan), several other interesting items, indic- ative of the interests and activities of our forebear's community, and of their part in them. An 1853 notice of a pre-Convention meeting of the "Democratic-Republicans of Charlton" to be held at the home of John Bowlsby for the selection of delegates is of interest not only because of the Party name of that day but because Bowlsby was a son-in-law of the original Alexander. In 1837, according to a receipt issued to him, John Gilchrist, Jr. bought two shares of stock in the Galway Academy. In the same year he joined with others, as a pledge-note indicates, to underwrite a subscription to the "Temperance Recorder". Other signatures include his father, or perhaps his uncle, John Gilchrist; his cousin, William I. Gilchrist; and Dr. Finley McMartin, who, like Bowlsby, was a son-in-law of the original Alexander. The F-G Book indicates that another of Alexander's daughters married a Bell (but omits his first name) and mothered a son, George Bell. A Horatio (W. or N.) Bell and a George Bell subscribed and may be this father and son, but that is not certain. A bill by Isaac Putman to Rev. James Mairs for eight yards@ of tartan plaid indicates a continuing interest in old-country customs; and two Cotillion invitations to Miss Jane Ann Mairs in 1826 and 1827 indicate that these functions began in the early afternoon, a rather sensible adjustment to the short Northern winter days and the early-rising habits of a farm community. Additionally, there is the commission of John Gilchrist to be a Judge of Saratoga County executed in 1838 by Gov. Wm. L. Marcy, for whom Edgar says the highest mountain in New York State (and possibly East of the Mississippi) was named. The commission is authenticated, as Deputy Secretary of State, by Archibald Campbell, an uncle of Dr. McMartin. Mr. Campbell later authored a letter to Dr. McMartin in which he made reference to Judge Gilchrist of which the Judge took such pride he made an excerpt of them in his own hand to pass down to his children. This excerpt I already had from my father, along with John Gilchrist, Jr.'s commissions as Lieutenant and Captain of Militia and several other items such as my grandfather's licenses as a young man to teach second-grade, an "appreciation" penned by his students and a letter he wrote Aunt Margaret Randles after the Chicago Fire. These are, of course, but fragmentary glimpses into a total picture we can never wholly reconstruct; but they certainly reflect industry and active participation in the serious and pleasure purposes of the community, of which these folk could not have been less than leaders. It was Edgar, too, who reminded me of Mr. Carter's hand-written history of the area to which he says both his grandmother and his mother contributed a goodly portion of the information on our family. I have never seen the book as Mr. Carter had already deposited it at the time I met him. in 1936 through the advance courtesy of Edgar's mother, Jean Y. Bullard. I cannot remember an afternoon with a more aware and informed person; and, for all his years which were then considerable, Mr. Carter's fund of knowledge and grasp of it -- from what he could give me in so short a time -- seemed formidable. I have not been able to locate Mr. Carter's history. It is believed to have been in the collection of Henry Ritchie, Charlton Historian, who died last year. New York State Library, Division of Manuscripts and History, Albany, may shed some light when the University reconvenes. x x x x x Credits for Part II appear in that section at appropriate places. x x x x x I thank Mr. William Garth Gilchrist, Jr. of Jackson, Mississippi for letting me use the general Scottish background information which was the introductory portion of a paper he prepared early this year for his family. I have never met Wm. Garth, though we have had the most pleasant sort of corres- pondence over the past five years. There is absolutely no indication in our records of any American blood-tie with his family, which has lived almost entirely in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama. See, however, page 10 for an interesting last minute development. Two other items of interest to our family I draw from his letters: (a) His initial ancestor, Malcolm, son of Angus Gilchrist, was born in Cantyre (now Kintyre), Scotland in 1744 and came to America in the same year as our ancestor, William, 1770. (b) All my life I have heard -- always as an oral account without substantiating evidence -- that, when our ancestor came, there were two ships carrying Gilchrists which left Belfast and became separated by storm in mid-Atlantic, one landing near the mouth of the Connecticut River and the other on the North Carolina coast. It made a good yarn; but, because there was no substantiating evidence, I always thought it must be at least part-apochryphal. In a recent letter, Wm. Garth gave me the identical story, except the northern landing was on the New Jersey coast! As in our family, it has been in his an unsubstantiated word-of-mouth recitation. I am persuaded that no story which survives 190 years of near-identical oral recita- tion in two widely separate families can be apochrypal. x x x x x The following quotation, from The Daily Scotsman for January 12, 1950, was preserved by my father: "GILCHRIST: From the Gaelic, "Gille Criosd", meaning "Servant of Christ". As a personal name it appears early, a Gillecrist MacCormac being found in the Book of Deer in 1132. Kilschyn Gilchrist, who rendered homage to Edward I in 1297, must have been among the first to bear it as a surname. Clans and tartans given are MacLachlan and Ogilvie." (NOTE: In Part I our quoted ancestor gives an earlier date.) x x x x x From a Clan Map, of current Scottish publication (confirming that published in Chicago Tribune 11/30/62),I find the MacLachlans an enclave among Campbells on the east shore of Loch Fyne near Strathlachlan, while the Ogilvies are shown on the North Sea coast surrounding Banff and farther south in an area north and west of Forfar (See Part III). I have never known whether we were MacLachlans or Ogilvies, nor what the connection between those Clans might be, if any. x x x x x Like my work of last year, copies of this booklet will be deposited with: Department of Historical Genealogy, Newberry Library, Chicago; Regional History Collection, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. New York State Library, Albany, N. Y.; and, Department of Archives and History, Atlanta, Georgia. The last-named institution has micro-filmed the Foster-Gilchrist Book (of which there are only three copies, so far as I know) for its collection and made me an extra print which I have deposited at the Newberry Library in Chicago. I think that the most centrally convenient place should other members of the family wish to look at it. I am also grateful, indeed, to Archives for the immense help it is giving me in the preservation of documents. These will also be micro-filmed for its collections, though there will be some delay in completing this work. x x x x x A booklet such as this was a project my Dad looked forward to. He once suggested that we might some day do it together. I wish that had been so. I like to think some "over-spill" of camaraderie from remembered joint-ventures with him has entered into this work. Certainly, it has been more than enhanced by fragments of infor- mation, documents and date lists he collected, compiled and preserved along the way; and by the family facts and legends he told me. The substance of these things is woven through this account; sometimes with credit, more often without. It was his hope, as it is mine, that a wider diffusion of knowledge of our common heritage, and of those with whom it is shared, would enable us to enjoy and strengthen each other more. It would please him to know the work was done. That is my justification and my recompense -- in full -- for having undertaken it. James M. Gilchrist, Jr. Atlanta, Georgia 30333 August 1, 1964 LATE DATA:9/15/64- Richard Carter's untitled notebooks may be seen at the home of Mrs. Wm. Schwem, West Charlton (R.D.5,Amsterdam),N.Y.(Hwy. 67,1-1/2 mi. W. of Church) --- Saratoga County Historian,C.E. Rugg, Rte 1, Schuylerville, has some census and cemetery data--- Area interest: NYS Library suggests,"Stories and pictures of Charlton, N.Y." written and published(1959) by W.Bronson Taylor, Twiddle Grove,N.Y.--- JMG,Jr.
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