Wednesday, March 18, 2009

my non-Irish roots

Well now that St. Patrick's day is safely over I can talk about my non-Irish roots. Although my father was a McClernan and my mother was a Maguire, there are also Dryers (French), Smiths, Halls (English) and even the Welsh Wolfingtons in the mix. The photo here, thanks to my cousin Lorraine who is interested in genealogy, is of my mother's father's mother, Mary (May) Winifred Wolfington. I never met her but always felt so bad for her - the infamous influenza pandemic of 1918 killed her husband Thomas Maguire and their oldest son Tom within two days of each other as can be seen in these online obituary records - which show so many of the others who also died from pneumonia or influenza in the same month. According to family lore May Wolfington was never the same after, which is no wonder. Her son Martin survived and married my grandmother Marie Smith two years later. When they were 16 and 17 respectively - which seems to be a bit of a family tradition.

Iggy Wolfington the Broadway and TV actor was her nephew.