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ANCESTOR NO. 25: SARAH ELIZABETH LAING (1838-1911)

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 Sarah Elizabeth Laing was orphaned before she was ten years old, worked as a hired servant as a young woman, and went on to build a family of her own that carries forward to this day. Piecing her story back together from old census pages, deeds, vital records, and a family Bible has been a bit like assembling a puzzle with only half the pieces. My grandfather’s grandmother Sarah was born on August 22, 1838, in New York City, the fourth of seven children born to Abraham Laing, a stonecutter, and Sarah C. "Sally" Hale. [1] Her father's family, the Laings, had been rooted in New Jersey since the 1670s; her mother's family, the Hales, had lived around Newbury, Massachusetts, since the 1630s. Sarah was born into a family with terrible health. Her little sister Bethiah died in 1842. Her father died of “congestion of lungs” in the spring of 1846, when Sarah was just seven. [2] Two years later, in the summer of 1848, her mother died of consumption (tuberculosis), when Sa...
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ANCESTOR NO. 24: WILLIAM TODD LUDLOW (1841-1905)

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 My grandfather’s grandfather, William Todd Ludlow, was born on 15 February 1841, almost certainly at 89 Clinton Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. [1] His father, Matthias Ludlow, was a mason, and William’s mother was born Sarah Ann Todd in Manhattan. [2] They lived at the same address as William’s maternal grandfather, William Todd, an immigrant cartman (similar to today’s delivery truck drivers). He is one of the few nineteenth century ancestors of mine for which I have a photo. Inscribed "Uncle Billy Ludlow" on the back. By 1850, William was living with his family in Rahway Township, New Jersey, just west of Staten Island, New York. The family included his older sisters Sarah Ann and Eliza. [3] The Ludlows had deep roots in Rahway, going back at least a century, so they would have been surrounded by relatives. William’s father bought land in Rahway and Manhattan and gave up masonry for farming. Another brother, Ebenezer, was born in 1852. They were still in Rahway ...
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