Just what I have always wanted..a house that you do not have to clean, a place to deposit info for others to share, a rich history of stories and pictures..
The last name of VanLandingham has many spellings, but according to a noted historian on this name, we might have all come from 1 man, named Michael, who was from Belgium (Flanders) and came to America around 1690..I am not sure where he entered this Country but probably in VA where many ancestors have been located..there seems to be many families in the southern part of the US, including my branch.
My great-grandfather was Stewart VanLandingham, his wife was Sarah Burke when my grandfather was born..it is said that my ggrandfather was married or had children by 7 women and there are 31 of them accounted for..even in those days, that was a lot of families for 1 man to have..but there seems to be enough people in my branch to account for this many to be born to each of his families..most has been documented in 2 wonderfully written books by J. Leon VanL, who is the honorary documentarian of this large group of people. I have talked to many of my own family group and others who are cousins of some sort of mine..it appears we are all linked and documented well. My Grandfather, Geo. Washington VanL was born in 1868 in Bath Co., KY, probably in the town of Owingsville or Salt Lick. He migrated to Illinois about 1888 and married my grandmother, Mary Jane McGary. I think they might have had ties in KY as both families were from adjoining counties. Her parents were Wm. & Rachel (Naylor) McGary, and they were said to be first cousins. Because of all of the medical problems in my mothers family, I believe this close genetic relationship to be true..many of us cousins had some severe mental and physical problems, along with heart disease, alcholism, arthritis and other neuro-muscular diseases..I had 2 first cousins born with holes in their hearts in a time that repair was just a thought in a Physicians mind..they both lived long enough to have some surgery, but 1 died at 40 even though he had the best care he could get. The McGary bloodline was traced to John Alden, Coopersmith on the Mayflower, through his daughter Ruth Alden Bass. I am eligible to join the Mayflower Society, but never had because I have not been near a large enough town with a chapter. But I am very glad to also be a part of that large group of people and very honored by my birth into the Alden family.
My mother was Dorothy Mae VanL, 2nd to last child of Geo. and Mary Jane..there were 13 pregnancies, but few lived to adulthood..I do remember all my aunts and uncles except a few who died long before I was born..their first child, Jerry, named after my grandfathers brother, Jeremiah, only lived 2 yrs. and his death cause is unknown..2 others lived until 18 & 23..Roy Elva was 18 when he was hit and killed by a train as he walked home from town (Havana, Illinois) and Nina Green, a new bride, died at 23 from the complications of Diabetis, a disease little was known about in 1923. Her husband married her widowed sister who had 3 children and they had 2 more. Arthur was the 2nd child born and he lived a full life having just 1 child..Mable married Emory Hines and they had no children, she died from the terrible effects of Rheumatoid Arthritis..she was terribly crippled and in terrible pain from the time she was 40 or so..Viola married her deceased sisters husband, Reuben Green, after her much older husband, and former teacher passed away 10 yrs. after they married. Chester married Alice and moved to Janesville, WI, they had 2 sons, one of which was retarded and had a hole in his heart..the other, Richard, died at age 68 of heart disease. Harold married Mable Zimmerman and they had 3 children, one of which also had a hole in his heart and died young, their other son died in 2004 from a fall from the roof of his home in winter, after going through a heart attack, surgeries and doing fine healthwise..he was only 67..his father, Harold, also died young, age 49, while working in his diesel mechanic shop. My mother, Dorothy, was killed in an accident at age 63, so this family had a lot of bad luck. Both grandparents lived a full life and died in 1945 and 1948, with Geo. dying first before Mary Jane.
There are many living decendents of this large family including myself, who was born, Nov. 5th, 1946 in Canton, Illinois. We moved to Ca. when I was a baby, then back to Illinois, then to Las Vegas, then back to Illinois, then back to Calif. as my father tried to recover from TB he acquired in WWII..Walter J. Parks and Dorothy VanL were married in Van Buren, AR., the night before my father was to ship out for training on May 16th, 1942..while he was in the US training with Gen. Geo. Patton, my mother followed him around, being one of the only women to have her own car..this made her very popular with the other wives as they were not trapped all the time in some desert camp or strange town..My Dad was going to make the Army a career, but his TB stopped him as he was still testing positive until 1959..They were married for 25 yrs., then divorced and each married other people. My Dad moved to Oregon, where I live and my mother stayed in Calif., where she passed away in 1979.
I have 1 son, Scott, who is married with 3 daughters, not living in Oregon, but close by so that I can be there in 6 hrs or so. I have lived to see my grandchildren become young women and can't wait to see my great grandchildren someday.
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