I am Charles Joseph Rodkey, b 1958 in Johnstown, Pa.
If I can provide any info please feel free to write

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Hi, Haley,
No, this is not the end of the line at Jane and Samuel… I just looked in my computer notes and found some of the Australian connection things I saved from that relative. I also have hard copies of much more in the package from Australia she sent me and her ancestor’s photos in the drawer I told you about. I keep all contacts on the computer or hard copies in case my computer bombs and loses my emails.
Here is an excerpt:
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GENERATION 2: Parents of our Samuel McFiggen (marr. to Jane Laird)2:

Father: Robert McFiggen; b. ab. 1814, Lanark; died Nov. 26, 1899 Eddlewood Row, Hamilton; occupation: ironstone miner, coal miner, death informant: James McFiggen (son); cause of death: senile decay of 6 months

Mother: Agnes M. Mitchell; cause of death: congestion of larynx, 10 days, hemiplegia 3 years, general breakup of system; died 12:30 a.m.; death informant: Robert McFiggen (son present)

Children of Robert McFiggen and Agnes Mitchell:

1. Samuel McFiggen, born ab. 1840 (ours)

2. Mary McFiggen, b. ab. 1842, Parish Carluke, LKS; died Jan. 3, 1896, Royal Infirmary, Glasgow

3. James McFiggen, b. ab. 1845, Parish Old Monkland, LKS;died Nov. 16, 1921, Farm End Cottage, Overtown; occupation coalminer; death informant Agnes Williamson (niece); cause of death: senile decay, syneopa

4. Unnamed McFiggen, b. Mar. 1846, Carluke, LKS, died Mar. 1846, Carluke, LKS; buried Carluke Churchyard (Entry in OPR Carluke: “1846 child of Robert McFiggens and Agnes Mitchell buried 9th March aged?” written by the Minister at the end of this year: “The deaths of 1846 exceded by fully a half the number of any previous year in the parish. This was owing to two causes chiefly: first the influx of strangers during the construciton of the Caledonian Railway and secondly the prevelance of Scarlet fever during the greater part of the summer”

5. Robert McFiggen, b. ab. 1848 in Parish Carluke, LKS; occupation: coalminer

6. Alexander McFiggen, b. Feb. 23, 1853 in Yieldshields, LKS

7. Jane McFiggen, b. Sept. 8, 1859, Weigh House Row, Carluke, LKS, died Oct. 14, 1949 in Townview, Milton Road, Carluke, LKS (here is our connection through great-grandmother of Jane Clayton in Australia, the sister of our Samuel)

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…There is more, but this will give you somewhere to go looking and have the right parents of the first Samuel. Now, Jane Laird is another story. I do not recall ever hearing from any Laird person over these years. And I have heard from so many people about so many branches, but not that one…

Cindy

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Thanks Cindy! What great information! ~haley

I believe my Mother was born in Mercer Township, Penna., near Sharon. She and my Father were married in Middlesex, Pa. And the house still stand that they went to housekeeping in. They were married the year of the big Johnstown flood and went to see the damage it did on their honeymoon.

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National Park Service: Johnstown Flood:

On May 31, 1889, a neglected dam and a phenomenal storm led to a catastrophe– one of the worst disasters in our Nation’s history–in which 2,209 people died and thousands more were injured. There was no larger news story in the latter nineteenth century after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. The story of the Johnstown Flood has everything to interest the modern mind: a wealthy resort, an intense storm, an unfortunate failure of a dam, the destruction of a working class city, and an inspiring relief effort. It’s a story of great tragedy, but also of triumphant recovery.