Family Secrets

One of the projects I undertook after retiring was the development of a four family genealogy: the Stauffer and McMillen sides of Sue's family and the Rubba and Layer sides of mine. I was able to trace the Stauffer line back to the mid-1600s in Baveria, the McMillen line to the Gollaway area of Ireland in the late 1700, the Rubba line back to the early 1700s in Gesso, Sicily, and the Layer line to England back to the 1200s. On that I had help from a great uncle on the Layer side who spent the last two years of his life tracing his family through the middle ages. That notwithstanding, you can uncover some very interesting information in the process of doing a family genealogy. For example, in the early 1800s, within a generation of arriving in America from Ireland via Philadelphia, the McMillens were among the first settlers in what is now Holmes Co., Ohio. The Layer line included a Sheriff of London - Wylliam de Lyre in 1291 - and a Mayor of London - Richard Lair in 1345. Also in the Layer line, a John Matthews (1690-1779) changed his name to Mathis after leaving Wales for America to literally leave behind an unscrupulous business history. Mathis went on to become a large land holder in the Bass River area of NJ, now part of Burlington Co., and Bucks Co., PA. But the most surprising has to be Angelo Rubba, the likely link between the two lines of Rubbas from Gesso who settled in Hammonton, NJ between 1895 and 1905. Apparently, Angelo had his brother stand in for him on his wedding day because he was in jail. (No information was found about the wedding night!) Later in life after his first wife died, Angelo appears to have lied about his age; the wedding record indicates he was 10 years younger than his birth record. The photo below is the oldest photo of anyone in the four families. It is a portrait of Zepheriah Pinkerton McMillen (1833-1903) who early in life sought adventure in the west, eventually settling in Omaha, NE in the 1850s where he made a living as an artist. In 1857 he married Loretta Cordelia Jones who had immigrated from England. Together they raised four children. Zepheriah Pinkerton McMillen also wins the prize for the best name in the family, as well as for the best beard (though this Silver Leaf Langur I photographed at the San Diego Zoo has great hair overall).