Celebrate Your Ancestors with a Connection to May (2024)

Question

Let's celebrate our ancestors who have a special link to the month of May!  Please answer this post with some words about your ancestor and what you'd like the WikiTree community to know about them.  Don't forget to include their WikiTree ID number so that folks can visit their profile.  Photos are welcome too, though not required.

We'll celebrate your ancestor with a shout out on the Saturday Roundup Livecast; we love stories, so please share whatever you can to bring them to life.

If you need inspiration for which of your ancestors to tell us about, go to your Watchlist and then click on the Anniversaries tab.  It will give you a list of all the significant dates in May for anyone in your watchlist.

Answer 1

My great grandmother Riza Diantha Marvin was born on 18 May 1848 and passed away on 13 May 1920. Riza was only 5 when her father died, and she and her three siblings were in orphans court. Her mother married Seth Marvin II, who was ten years younger than her mother. Seth and her mother had four children young children when her mother died. 

Riza then married her stepfather, and she raised her four half siblings along with the 12 children that she and Seth had together. Riza was ten years younger than Seth, and I feel she must have been a remarkable women to have raised so many children. 

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Ford-8230

Comments

What a story, Alexis.  Thank you for sharing your great-grandmother Riza with us.  I also like the name Riza very much!  We'll celebrate her on this morning's Roundup livecast.  (https://www.youtube.com/live/FcK10aHg6Rk?si=2CnMMHLUud4jEtDf)  I hope you can join us live or anytime later. 

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Betsy, thank you for the very sweet comments about Riza on the Saturday Roundup Livecast, also thank you for the opportunity to celebrate her life. I have written about her husband, my great grandfather Seth Marvin II, a few times; however, this is the first time to recognize Riza.

Answer 2

May is a common middle name in my paternal grandmother's family.  My great-great grandmother, great-grandmother, grandmother, aunt and a few of my dad's cousins all share the middle name.

Sadly, I'm not aware of any of the girls born after 1950 who have it.  So sad!  Especially since we all got monosyllabic middle names of no particular provenance (Lynn, Kay, Lee, Dawn, Beth, Ann, etc.)

Comments

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks so much for your response; this is a great twist on our celebration of May.  We'll celebrate your grandmother Stella May on this morning's Saturday Roundup Livecast.  You can watch live at 10 am EDT/2 pm UTC or any time afterwards at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/live/FcK10aHg6Rk?si=2CnMMHLUud4jEtDf

Also, I see that you're a brand new member of WikiTree: WELCOME!!!  You may find these sessions helpful.

https://www.wikitree.com/g2g/1739122/new-member-q-a-via-zoom-may-2024

Hope to run into you around the tree another time soon!

Betsy

Answer 3

One pair of my 6 x GGP Henry Perry Richards 1711 - 1747, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Richards-8311 and Hannah Turner 1710 to death date unknown, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Turner-16449

were married on 3 May 1733 at St Bartholomew Church in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England.

They had 7 children 5 of them died before adulthood, only 1 of the children my 5 x GGF is known to have married and had children, their youngest child a daughter Hannah born 1745 may have lived, no records have been found after her baptism.

Comments

Hello M,

Thank you for sharing your Henry and Hannah with us.  We missed their wedding anniversary by just one day!  

We'll celebrate them on today's Roundup Livecast.  I hope you can join us live or anytime afterwards at:

https://www.youtube.com/live/FcK10aHg6Rk?si=2CnMMHLUud4jEtDf

I hope that I pronounce Wednesbury correctly.  I'm assuming that it's similar to the day of the week.

Cheers,

Betsy

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yes Betsy, pretend it doesn't have the D!

Answer 4

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mihaljevich-4

My maternal grandfather , Milan MIhaljevich. He is my brick wall as he never knew his mother and only has a name for his father. But if not for him half of my branches would have never made it to Milwaukee when he immigrated from Austria Hungary in 1913.  He was born May 15, 1898 ! 

Answer 5

Hi Betsy
Although a distant relative I am proud of this war hero.

William Frederick Quarrell (12 June 1897 - 1 May 1969)

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in WW1 and was assigned to the 6th Field Artillery Brigade. He served in both Egypt and France and was wounded in action twice before his discharge from the Army in England on 19 July 1919 (which peaked my interest as this was very usual - most service men returned home before being discharged). After being demobbed he enlisted in the British Army for special service to the Russian Relief Force with the 45th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers and was sent to Russia. During this service he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM).

According to his war records he was also awarded the French ''Croix de Guerre'' but I haven't been able to prove this yet.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Quarrell-54

Answer 6

Hi Betsy,

Besides being born in May myself (next Saturday), I would like to nominate my 4th great grandmother, Narcissa (Pierce) Hopson, who was born on 1 May 1801 (or 1804 depending on the record).

She was one of my brick walls for over 20 years. It was only a couple of years ago that I was finally able to solve her parentage via DNA research, but there are still hundreds of incorrect trees out there.

She was one of three Pierce sisters (Narcissa, Sophronia and Anna) who married in Athens, Ohio, to three Hopson brothers (Robert, Thomas and Benjamin). Her father had died in 1814 and she was married in 1815 (either age 11 or 13). She and her husband, Robert, had a very loving marriage and would go on to have 13 children. We also had to prove Robert's ancestry, as there was a family story passed down through generations that he was kidnapped as a boy on the coast of Scotland while gathering fire wood. It was stated that he was taken by ship to New York where he stole away to Ohio. DNA proved otherwise when we found his parents were Simeon Hopson and Elizabeth Lottridge and that he was born in New York. Goes to show how family stories sometimes can be just that...stories (not fact).

In discovering Narcissa's true parentage, it was discovered that she was a Mayflower descendant through Samuel Fuller, John Howland, Elizabeth Tilley and her parents, John and Joan (Hurst) Tilley.

Robert and Narcissa eventually moved from Athens, Ohio to Adams, Illinois where they lived the remainder of their lives. Narcissa died on 1 April 1860 and her husband followed her in death just nine months later on 15 January 1861.

Answer 7

I would like to recognize my grandparents Ernie Lee Wine (Wine-470) and Lena Leota Forinash (Forinash-30) wedding anniversary in May.

Answer 8

I am celebrating my aunt Joyce Brafford.  She was born on 30 May 1932 in Detroit, Michigan.  She was born with exstrophy of the bladder. She passed away at age 9.  My mom was about 5 years younger than Joyce and she has several memories of her big sister. Her favorite was pushing Joyce around the house in her old wooden wheelchair.  Mom and Joyce both had rheumatic fever--mom ended up with a heart murmur while it weakened Joyce's heart. She never fully recovered.  

When I first saw the picture that is Joyce's profile picture, I thought it was my mom.  They looked so much alike that they could be twins.  The funny thing is, my sister and I are the same way.  The only way you can tell pictures of my sister and myself apart is that hers are black and white and mine are colored.  

I've always wondered what it would have been like if she had survived.  Hearing the love in my mom's voice when she talks about Joyce, I know she would have been an awesome aunt. 

Answer 9

I have lots of BMD in my family in May. Here are the key ones my paternal grandparents:

Attilio Fiordalisi born 20 May 1893 Orilio, Calabria, Italy 

Death 25 May 1966 Cleveland Ohio Here is this photo my grandfather Attilio is kneeling. Left to right, Josephine , Joseph , Anne, Herman with his son Richard. 

Anna Porcello Fiordalisi died on 20 May 1956. I barely knew her since I was born in 1951. 

Answer 10

Two marriage in my family in May

Ferdinand Francois Rouquier and Violet Rose Ray were married on 7 May 1940 in Kankakee, Illinois, 

William Bernard Maass and Beatrice Bertha Ray were married on 15 May 1930 in Kankakee, 

Answer 11

My parents wedding date was organised with the municipality of Nieuwer-Amstel for the 10th of May 1940. On that day the war started. Mothers family lived in Amstelveen just about 5 km east of the main Dutch (civil) airport of Amsterdam called Schiphol. So during the night German bombing was going on to make this airport unusable. My parents didn't go to the municipal office to marriage, and after a call from the municipal office they cancelled it. My mother stayed at home in Amstelveen and my father in Amsterdam. The warfare was over after 5 days and from that moment the occupation by the German troops lasted till 5 May 1945.

My maternal grandfather had bought 2 houses in Amstelveen for his 4 children. In the house at the Rentmeesterslaan 81 the family Mullender lived for years, first my grandparents and after the death of my grandmother 1th of August 1941 my grandfather with the eldest and youngest son, although the first son was student at the technical university in Delft, the 2nd son was in South-America and came only back to the Netherlands after the war. So only the youngest son stayed with his father in the house.

The other house at the van der Hoochlaan 3 was empty. So the family was in need to assure someone to live there, otherwise the house would be reclamed by the occupators. My parents decided to marry the 29th of May 1940. The wedding party was just with close family and only a few friends of my mother joined.

The young couple in the garden of their new familyhome in Amstelveen. Here was my birthplace and also the birthplace of my sisters. We lived here till 16 November 1965.

Comments

Hello Klaas,

Thank you for sharing this amazing family story with us.  We'll talk about it on today's Saturday Roundup livecast.  I hope you can join us live at 10 am ETD/2 pm UTC or anytime afterwards:

https://www.youtube.com/live/YK-NTnMacxU?si=tcdNbcl0aUQk9FYp

I remembered the surname Mullender from the photo post and saw that you also shared a photo of your mother and uncles.  The photo compliments the story beautifully.

Thank you again for sharing!

Betsy