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Peter Anthony's avatar

Thank you for this lovely post. I was struck by the name Mary Jane. It appears in my family tree as well (Mary Jane Gibbons), and it made me reflect on naming conventions across generations. I have a Maud, a few Williams, and quite a few Roberts. In fact, there seems to have been a tradition within Scottish-Irish families of naming the first son Robert, something I have now seen across three generations.

I also plan to write about the devastating losses so many women faced when their children died young from illness. It is heartening to read that so many of Mary Jane’s eleven children survived.

Thanks again for sharing this story. It made me think about similar patterns in my own family.

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