As published in The Lurgan Mail
LURGAN MAIL – Wednesday April 08, 1998
THE Internet has been buzzing with news of Lurgan this week as an American woman has enlisted the help of a local man in an effort to trace her ancestors.
Lurgan man Sammy Malcolm has been in contact with Rachel Nichols of White Cliff, Tennessee over the internet as she tries to trace the relatives of her paternal grandmother, Florrie Livingston.
Her mother was Mary Johnston, who was born in Dublin in 1871 and she married Thomas Malcomson Livingston.
They had five children living when they emigrated to America in 1912.
Their ship sailed just four days after the Titanic disaster – and it’s thought they should have been on that doomed ship only for a mix-up over luggage.
The children were Bert, Stanley, Eva, Florrie, and Bob. When they first arrived they went to Winnipeg, Canada where they stayed for a while before deciding to drive down to Florida.
Their car got stuck in the mud and they ended up staying at a farmhouse in Kentucky – which is how Rachel’s grandparents met.
SQUIRTED
Her grandfather Frank Morris (then aged 20) was milking a cow when Florrie (16) followed him into the barn.
Young Frank had his back to the door and thought the figure behind him was one of his sisters, he raised an udder and squirted the girl in the face.
Obviously Florrie forgave him and when Florrie moved to Florida they wrote to each other for a while before Frank moved down to marry her.
On the connection on this side of the Atlantic, Rachel recentley found letters written to her grandmother from her aunt Jeannie Johnston. She mentions several times her love of Edenvale House on Windsor Avenue and how difficult is was leaving in 1932.
Rachel is hoping to visit Lurgan to meet distant relatives and Sammy to thank him for his help.
She also pointed out her parents are keen on coming to the town.
Her father Frank has cancer and finding his ancestors, Rachel said, has become nearly an obsession with him.
Anyone who can help in the search for Rachel’s relatives on this side of the Atlantic is asked to contact Sammy Malcolm on Lurgan 328222.