Question of the Week: Do you have any nurses in your family tree?

Question

May 6 is National Nurses Day and May 12 is International Nurses Day.  

Do you have any nurses in your family tree? 

PS: Keep an eye on the Connection Finder to see how are connected to Florence Nightingale!

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Comments

My relative, Dessie J. Rhoades Zingher, was a nurse serving in the U.S. Army Cadet Nursing Corps in 1945, graduated from Methodist Hospital in 1948.  Trained in delivering babies and spent two years studying anesthesia in Minniesota and Springfield, Illinois.  She married a Doctor Henry Zingher.

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My Nana, Annie Lyle Wallace Mathewson, was a Nurse in Montreal and my mom, Anne Louise Mathewson Fulcher, was an NA in Edmonton. I am currently an LPN in Edmonton.

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I am the nurse in the family tree-been a nurse for over 40 years. My mother was not a “nurse” but certainly provided nursing care to both her parents, family members and friends. Learned so much from her

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I have been a nurse for 41 years. First a nurse’s aid, LPN, RN and now a BSN. Nursing is a “calling”, an art. A nurse’s touch is everything to those who need it. Family members can be unofficial nurse’s and provide that “touch”. You can be a nurse but never be fulfilled unless you are a nurturer by nature, never be satisfied. I hope our young nurses are in the field as a “calling”. I hope for all our sakes.

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My Great-grandmother, Bernice McHenry was a Practical Nurse. I only remember her as being retired but I remember the stories she would tell about becoming a nurse.

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Our daughter Maria is a nurse, my maternal first cousins, Bonni, Sherry and Eileen are nurses, and cousin Sherry's son Jeremy is a nurse.

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I was a Registered Nurse employed in several different areas full-time (except for mat leaves) from 1966 to retirement in 2010. 43+ years.  Received award for Obstetrical nursing at Graduation. Started out in NICU. then DVA Hospital. then Float position in 2 general hospitals (2 different cities). then Gynaecology/High-risk pregnancy. Then Orthopaedics for 9 years. Finally geriatrics/long-term care for the last 22 years.   I enjoyed each stage in different ways. My maternal grandfather was a surgeon in the Royal Navy during the Boer War and then a family physician until his untimely death at 42 - he had lanced a boil for a patient. scalpel slipped and he developed septicaemia and died. My cousin was also a Registered Nurse & her father - my uncle - was a physician and surgeon - a specialist in Tropical medicine who took a new job when he retired at age 75 - doing medicals for an insurance company until age 92 - and was still reading his copy of the British Medical Journal until his death at 106 years!!

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I finished my Masters in nursing a few years ago.  My grandmother Nina Nickerson Fritz was a nurse. My grandmother wanted someone to become a nurse.  My older sister Jane Vicario Fritz became a CNA, as did her second daughter. One of Janes granddaughters became a Medical Assistant in a daughters office.  I became a MSN RN, then our younger sister became a RN.  I know our grandmother must be beaming from heaven to know that so many of her granddaughters and great granddaughters have followed in her steps into healthcare.

Taylor

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My father, John Irwin Merrill started out as a corpsman in the United States Navy, serving 2 tours in Vietnam, treating Marines on the battlefield. He was injured and received a purple heart medal. Once he retired from the Navy, he went to college and complete his degree in nursing. Working in a hospital and with the elderly.

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I am a third generation registered nurse.

My grandmother Evelyn May (Brown) McDonald 1896-1963

My Mother Esther L. (Nelson) McDonald 1912-1977 a graduate of Newton-Welsley school of nursing in 1936 worked as an ER, OR, Labor & delivery,. Finley, at the end of her career, managed a new born nursery.

I an an ER registered nurse, graduating form Polk State in 1985,  For 36 years, I have cared for your families and loved ones while I worked in large trauma teaching hospitals and small hidden critical access hospitals.  

Now I am proud to say that my grand daughter, a pediatric ICU registered nurse, graduated from my alma mater in 2019. Aleesha (Gooding) Hudson is now working on her Masters degree in nursing.

Answer 1

My great grandmother, Helen Holroyd , and her husband Alfred Bowen were both nurses.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Holroyd-82

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Bowen-3251

 

Helen left school at 14 and began work as a sleeve hand.  She took piano and singing lessons, financing the latter by taking pupils of her own.  Ambitious and on bad terms with her sister 18 months younger – a nursing career was seen as a solution.  Training in General and Psychiatric nursing was completed in York at “The Retreat’ which was under the patronage of the Quaker families of Rowntree and Cadbury fame.  The challenge was enormous for someone with only an elementary education but success culminated in the award of the ‘Tuke Medal”.   After qualification she moved to  Scotland (Glasgow) for TB specialization and then into the R.A.M.C as a nursing sister including active service in France in 1918.

Alfred served in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First world war, including service on the Hospital Ship Mauretania.

Alfred and Helen married in 1918.

Following the war Alfred worked as a nurse at the South Yorkshire Mental Hospital and also privately as a Chiropodist.

Answer 2

Yes, my mother and my daughter. My dad had wanted me to be a nurse to follow in my mothers footsteps but I couldn't handle biology.  Ironically my daughter became a nurse at no suggestion from me.

Answer 3

I have been a nurse for 15 years.  I have always worked with children and currently, I work in the NICU. To my knowledge, there are no other nurses in my family tree.

Answer 4

My mom's sister "Teenie" and her daughter (my cousin) Susan were both nurses; and my aunt Florence (not Nightingale; my grandmother's sister-in-law), was a long-time nurse as well.  I knew "Teenie", Susan and Aunt Flo well.  Aunt Flo had the greatest laugh -- once she started she couldn't stop!  Sue did VNA work after she left working in a hospital.

My late mother-in-law Helen was one of the first to receive an advanced degree in nursing from Yale.

So proud of these women for all that they did.

Answer 5

My maternal grandmother, Kathryn Woods, was a nurse in Dodge City, Kansas from 1949 thru 1989.

Answer 6

Yes, my sister was an R.N.  she died almost ten years ago.  And my nephew is an E.R. nurse and has a doctorate in nursing. The medical gene skipped over me!

Answer 7

3 generations of nurses.  I found my g-grandmothers probationer nurse records from 1901. The 1891 census lists her as milliner's apprentice.  So something happened in that span.  (I love the possible hunt for a back-story)

She married a military surgeon who served in the South African War and WWI.  I have not found any occasion where she, herself, served in any theatre of war.

Answer 8

I am a Doctor of Nursing Practice, Nurse Practitioner and Clinical Nurse Specialist. To my best knowledge I am the first nurse in my direct family Tree. Anancestor on my paternal side was a Midwife but not a nurse.

Answer 9

My grandmother Bertha Eugenia Doty Kemble (1877-1963) was one of the first nurses to be registered in the state of PA.  When her Northumberland County community was swept by the terrible flu epidemic of 1918, a field hospital was set up outside her town to treat the stricken patients.  Grandma risked her life to go out to this field hospital to work there.  A family story has it that her next door neighbor was so terrified of the flu that she barricaded herself in her home.  The neighbor nevertheless contacted the flu and died, while my grandmother survived.

See Bertha's photo in nurse uniform  on her Wiki Tree profile.

Answer 10

I retired after 35 years of nursing during which time did a little bit of everything.  Worked peds, ob, med surg, rehab, geriatric.  Found working with the elderly most rewarding.  My birthday is the 13th

Answer 11

Yes, my mother was a nurse for over 50 years.  She served as an Army Nurse during WWII in England with the 200th Hospital and continued in her civilian life until she was unable to practice.  She held a license in MA, CT, NY, MI, and CA before she retired from Private Practice.  I used to use her stethoscope as an EMT and instructor.

Answer 12

My mother was a nurse.

Answer 13

I'm currently an LPN of 25+ years. My mother Juanita Humble Whitehead was a LPN for 30+ years.

Answer 14

My daughter is a nurse. She graduated from Dalhousie University in 1993 and works with adults that are in for tests and surgeries at the Halifax Infirmary Site of the QEII. She wanted to be a nurse since she was 5 years old and did achieve it. I am very proud of her.

Answer 15

Yes, my daughter is a cardic/stroke nurse in a nearby hospital.

Also, my great grandmother was a nurse during civil war time.

Very proud of both of them

Answer 16

Do mid-wives count? My mother said that her mother was a mid-wife for a time. She remembered times when the pregnant woman would come into town and stay at their house just before the baby was due. I wish I had asked her more about it. The local historical society has no information, but now that old newspapers are being digitized, perhaps there is a chance that something will show up.

Answer 17

Mollie Julia Beers (Beers-428)

Article from the Clearfield Progress, 5 June 1961

IRVONA WOMAN, LONG TIME NURSE IS 80 TODAY

IRVONA - One of this area's most esteemed residents marked her 80th birthday today in quiet contrast to the busy life that she led as a registered nurse for over half a century.

She is Miss Mollie J Beers a native of Ansonville and a resident of the Coalport-Irvona area all of her life. A recent illness that necessitated hospitalization at Altoona made her birthday celebration a quiet one but she was able to greet friends at the home of Dr A Pauline Sanders where she resides.

Miss Beers served for many years as a X-Ray technician at Johnstown Memorial Hospital and her experiences have been administrative in general hospital and nursing education as well. She was one of the major organizers of professional groups there too.

While serving at the Memorial Hospital, she was the night supervisor and acting superintendent of nurses. She was also superintendent of Cambria Steel Hospital during World War One.

She is a past president of the Memorial Hospital Alumnae and the organizing president of District 5 of the Pennsylvania Nurses Association.

Her grandmother was Julia Ann (Holly) Mays, the first teacher in the first school erected at public expense in Clearfield County on the Tom Haney Land on Penfield Street in Clearfield.

A number of other ancestors were among the early Clearfield County leaders

Miss Beers was born on June 5, 1881, at Ansonville, the daughter of Lewis T Beers and Elizabeth (Mays) Beers.

After completing teacher training at a normal school, she taught school in Beccaria township as a means of securing funds for nurses training.

She graduated from the Nursing School of Johnstown Memorial Hospital. Additional training was taken at the School of X-Ray Technicians, Chicago Illinois, and the Eastman School for X-Ray Technicians, Eastman Kodiak Company, Rochester New York.

She is presently affiliated with the Memorial Hospital Alumnae as a life time member; the National Society of X-Ray Technicians; the James Alexander Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution of Madera; BCI Business and Professional Women's Club; Jordan Grange of Berwindale; American Legion Auxiliary, and the Irvona Methodist Church and its Builders Sunday School Class.

Prior to her recent hospitalization, Miss Beers traveled extensively. She has toured much of this country, including Canada, Arcadia and the area north of Quebec, and has visited Bermuda and the Catalina Island. Her one airplane ride was to Cuba.

Answer 18

Yes, my sister is a nurse!  So proud of her!

Answer 19

My paternal grandmother Esther (Johnson) Pellowe was a registered nurse.  She was born outside of Chicago and later worked at the Lying In Hospital at University of Chicago.  My aunt, her daughter,  has shared stories about grandma working in the settlement houses in Chicago.  She gave care to Swedish people who could not speak English and did not have money to go to a doctor.

Answer 20

My mother was and my granddaughter is a nurse.  A first cousin once removed is now studying to be a nurse.

Mother's dream was always to be a nurse, but she met. Dad and deferred the dream until after I had married and left home.  I credit her determination as being, at least in part, the reason two of her great-grandchildren desired to follow her example.