Apr 30, 2011

My Dad

I recently received this photo from Margie, my Oceanside cousin on my Burrill side. It shows my great great grandfather, George Washing- ton Burrill (1836 - 1924), with some of his great grand-children in 1918. I was especially thrilled to get this photo because I have no doubt that the cute little blonde boy on the right is my dad. It is the best photo I have of him near that age - the face is definitely my dad, Lowell Burrill Dempster (1917-1995).

Lawler Genealogy

I'm working on the husband's side of my Oceanside cousin's genealogy. We have been looking for Henry Ashton Lawler and his wife Caroline Josephine "Lena" Christianson Lawler. Lena died in 1966 in California. Her obit is less than informative! Henry died in 1914 in Minnesota and I can't find an obit for him at all.

However, the real person of interest is Henry's mother. Her name was Mary A. supposedly born in Ohio around 1843. She married Thomas Lawler probably about 1860 and may have died in Minnesota between 1886 and 1889. Thomas, a railroad worker, was buried in Kentucky after dying of consumption while there. Mary then married her second husband, a very colorful Civil War veteran by the name of Benjamin F. Whitehouse. Mr. Whitehouse remarried in 1899, so Mary's death seems to be in the three-year window between 1886 (when property was transferred to her) and 1889 when her second husband remarried. Sure hope someone reading this blog has info on this family.