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THE LAUGHTON FAMILY HISTORY
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Following up on the work of Paul MacDonell Laughton ("Uncle Paul"),
I have been collecting and publishing, for all the family to see, the history
that has been found scattered throughout the clan in North America and Europe. This is a call
to all members of the clan, in all generations, to forward information that
can be added to this site and to suggest sections of special interest.
Each page is marked as to the date of the last update. For all update
details, please click the UPDATE link here or on the left index.
This web site is one that is "in transition" as I know not really
where I started and for sure I don't know where I will end up. The web
site version of this project started in 2004. For now, it
is important to get the information collected and published in the best form
possible so that we can find out "what we know" and "what
we are missing". Some of the remaining youngest members of our
grandparents era are in the 90's, while our parents are in their late 70's or
early 80's. We need to capture as much as possible while we can.
As a brief summary, here is what you can find on this web site, which are
noted as the key links on the left side of this page or in the table below. As
you move through the pages, that main index moves to the top of the page and the
new sub-pages appear on the left. At any time, click on HOME
to come back to this page.
Page Summaries:
| Main Category Link |
Information Provided at
Link Page |
| Updates |
Here you will find a running
story line of what has been added to this site from conception of the
project in April 2004 to the most current date shown at the top of the
list. Key links to pages with new information is provided.
At this page you may also "Sign Up" for an
automatic notification whenever that page (or other page you choose)
is updated. Entering your e-mail and pressing "OK" will mean
that you receive and notice whenever the specific page you choose has
been updated. Picking the UPDATE page as you page to monitor means you
will be advised of major site updates, whereas picking a specific page
(yours or your parents or grandparents) means you will be notified only
when that page has been updated. You can pick as many (or as few)
pages you want and as well you can cancel to process at any time in the
future. The program does not track who has requested updates or reveal
e-mail addresses, it only reports "x Number of Updates Sent
on y Date".
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| Genealogy |
The Genealogy Page is where
the primary FAMILY TREE CHARTS are located that provide a quick
reference to who is in the Laughton Family Tree and on what branch. This
page starts with the original hand drawn tree prepared by Paul Laughton,
which has now been converted to WORD and PDF format, with updates as
they become available.
As the tree has grown, there have been new or
sub-charts added so that a main family line can be expanded. The
original project was just to follow the main line that led to my existence,
but that has now changed considerably with new information arriving from
Norman in Arizona, Lindy in Texas, Ivan in British Columbia, David in
Alberta and Sue in Scotland. The project will keep growing as long
as the information keeps flowing!
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| History |
The History Page was one of
the very first pages added to the web site so there was a place to keep
track of family facts. As more and more information became
available about individual branches and people, separate pages were
started and the information was relocated. The history page thus became
condensed as the new pages grew.
The history page will change now, as we have a number
of "History Documents" that have been submitted, penned by
other members of the family. It is on this page that you will find
that information and links to history documents that are not specific to
an individual or branch.
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| Registers |
There are a number of sources
of information that is now available on-line that has been used to
substantiate, correct and update the paper information that was in the
historic Laughton files. I would suspect that none of this
information was available at the time the original Laughton Family
History was assembled, as Canada has a "90 Year Rule" on the
release of personal data. To this date in time, the latest
"complete" Canadian Census that is available is 1911 and 1916
is now starting to appear in limited format. Also recently
released was the 1891 Canadian Census in a very fine searchable format.
The other main on-line registers for detailed
information is "Scotland's People" (a pay per view site) and
the incredible web sites of the "Latter Day Saints" (LDS
Family Search "Cursiter" and "Pilot Project"). Once
you are at the main REGISTER page you can go to the details for each of
these main search engines or date bases where you will find the
information that has been discovered to date and to gain access to the
sites if you wish to expand the search.
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| Cemeteries |
It had always been known that
the Parkhill Cemetery contained the grave site of John Hugh Laughton
(1829) and many of his direct family members. One of his sons, George
Van Wyck Laughton, his wife and his son and daughter-in-law were buried
in Exeter, Ontario. My first trek to the cemeteries to get the
information first hand and to take photographs was after the death of
Charles Van Wyck Laughton in August 2004. That resulted in the pages for
the Parkhill and Exeter Cemeteries.
In the summer of 2008, with new information from Lindy
Laughton (Texas) the two family plots at the Niagara Falls (Ontario)
site were located. There are two plots there, one for the family
of John Laughton 1829 and a second for Edward Laughton 1876.
Considerable work was required to clean up this site and collect the
information. This was also the first time that GPS was used to map
the site and burial locations. A new page was created for the Niagara
Falls cemetery.
We now know the location of some of the other burial
sites and these have not yet been visited. One of the primary
sites appears to be WALKERTON as that is where Jerome Laughton 1834 is
reported to have been buried. Recent information tells us that Louise
Estelle Laughton (nee Van Wyck) - wife of John Hugh Laughton is
also buried in Walkerton, although he name is on the stone in Parkhill.
A young John Laughton (son of John Hugh Laughton) is reported to be
buried in St. Mary's and we know that Harry Van Wyck Laughton and his
wife Mary are in a mausoleum in Bellville, Ontario.
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| Eras |
The main list of all of the
known members of the Laughton Clan is provided in hierarchical format on
the ERAS PAGE. Each branch is shown with all currently know information
with the birth and death years (if known), plus a listing of the spouse
and children. Where a separate page has been created for a family
member, the name in the ERA page has a direct link to that person's
page, so it is a quick way to look up a family member and move to their
private page. The other alternative is to follow the links on the left
side of each of the pages in the ERA section, which change as you move
through each generation.
It may be in the future that the ERA page will grow
too large to be "manageable" in a single list. In that case
the page may be split.
In the fall of 2008 we also started to mark the names
of Laughton's who have military service records in BOLD and to show
their service number. Most of those now so marked have their own
Blog Site with all the details of their Military Service, even if they
do not yet have their own page on the Family Tree Website. In
addition, the Attestation Papers for each soldier are available
on-line. Lastly, we have now ordered, scanned and uploaded all of
the detailed Service Records for each Laughton that served in the Great
War of 1914-1919. Later records (i.e. WWII) are not yet available
in this format for all Laughton's but that work is "in
progress". |
| Orkney
Roots |
Some
of the most interesting details of the origins of the Laughton family
from the Orkney Islands in Scotland, come from the people of Orkney
themselves.
In 1960, John Ivan Laughton 1929
published an open letter in the newspaper in Orkney inquiring about the
origins of the Laughton Family.
One of those that responded, the only one
that I have a letter of from the John Ivan Archives, is from Archie
Laughton. Although I do not have all the dates, I can tell you that
Archie was the grandson of David Laughton 1841 who stayed in the
Orkney's when others (John and Jerome) left for Canada.
We are hoping that we will find more
details on this information, as our newest member in the Laughton
Family Tree Project is Sue Petrie, a direct descendant of David
Laughton 1841 and a resident of Scotland. More importantly, it appears
that Sue is a direct descendant of "Willie 'o the Park"
who is mentioned in these letters and other historical documents.
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| Questions? |
The original
project was to document the direct line from Gilbert Laughton 1771 to my
Grandfather (George Van Wyck Laughton 1897) and then on down the line to
others that follow.
As time progressed, the hunt for the "Other
Members" of the Laughton Clan became more interesting and
certainly more intriguing than the simple search for my personal roots.
As the project progressed and I started to hear from Norm, Lindy, John
Ivan and Sue .... the interest grew exponentially. This has started to
take me back into the documents I had, the documents that others are now
providing, and the field trips to the cemeteries where Laughton Clan are
to be found. Perhaps one day it will event take me to the Isles
of Orkney, should I be so lucky!
As we move through these new unchartered waters we are
finding missing links or contradictory documents. In order to ensure
that everyone has a chance to check on these issues and to submit
responses, a new page called QUESTIONS has been created. Here you
will not only find the "outstanding" issues but also those of
significance that have been resolved by the clan working together on
this project.
If you have a question, or know the answer ... or
perhaps just want to comment, please send in your information. You
would not believe how much even the tiniest bit of information has been
used to resolve questions to date.
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| Genomes |
In 2006 Richard Laughton 1952
and Jennifer Laughton 1980 opted to participate in the National
Geographic "Genome Project" which is an ongoing scientific
study to map the DNS of participants and use that to track the movement
of mankind from its origins to its existing locations. Although
not directly related to the Family Tree Project, this information may be
of interest to all other MALE LAUGHTON members, as we all carry the same
Y-chromosome. The females in the line carry the mothers
mitochondrial DNA marker. It is important to note that the results only reveal the anthropological story of your direct maternal or paternal ancestors—where they lived and how they migrated around the world many thousands of years ago.
The Genome Project is not a test for genealogical
mapping, but that can be done as well. The female markers are related to
the females in the line, so daughter to mother, to the mothers-mother
and so on up the line. As such the female markers of my sisters would
carry the markers of my mother (Maureen Laughton - nee Kennedy) and my
grandmother (Essie Kennedy) and my daughters carry the markers of their
mother (Olga Laughton - nee Ognoski) and their grandmother (Marina
Ognoski - nee Kirshner). All the male Laughton members would be
able to follow their Y-chromosome marker all the way back to Gilbert
Laughton of 1771 - if we have the correct line!
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Note:
Most of the photographs on this site can be seen in larger
scale by "clicking on the image" with your computer
mouse. If I have missed a hyperlink to do this on any photo, let me know
and I will fix the link. You can also download all the images to your
computer by going direct to the IMAGE
DIRECTORY and retrieving any or all of the photos.
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