MINNIE SOPHIA GUMBERT
&
ALEXANDER McGREGOR THOMPSON
Florida NY
Montgomery County, NY
Contributed by Nancy Robinson.
MINNIE SOPHIA GUMBERT & ALEXANDER McGREGOR THOMPSON
m. 20 Feb 1907
Alexander McGregor Thompson, son of John Bartholomew Thompson & Martha Ann McGregor, was born, March 18, 1885 on the McGregor Homestead which was built along the Mohawk River between Fort Hunter and Port Jackson by his g-g grandfather, Coll McGregor & his wife, Katherine McGregor who immigrated from Perthshire, Scotland in the late 1700's. He was the grandson of Joseph Thompson & Anna Eliza Bartholomew and Alexander McGregor & Deborah Smith, all of Florida Twp.
Alex's documented ancestors settled in New York and the Mohawk Valley in particular, as early as the 1600's. Among them were Jan Vincent of NYC, John Scott, first commandant of Ft. Hunter; Peiter Quackenboss of Albany, Hans Toll of Schenectady, Abram Huguenin of Kinderhook; his g-g grandfather, Priv. John Bartholomew, fought in the Revolutionary War and was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis in Oct, 1871. Some of Alex's other ancestral surnames include Van Alstyne, Van Valkenburgh, Marinus, & Post.
Alex left Florida Twp between 1900 - 1907 for North Tonawanda, NY where he married Minnie Gumbert, daughter of John Gumbert & Minnie Fanclow, children of German immigrants. Alex worked as a crane man for the railroad until his untimely death at the age of 25, leaving behind his widow and 2 small daughters.
Alex's widowed father, John Thompson, continued to live in Amsterdam with his second wife, Kittie Ochampaugh, daughter of Barney Ochampaugh and Pauline Smith, until his death in 1922. Alex's elder and only surviving brother, Herbert J. Thompson, who made many trips home to visit family after moving Dayton, Ohio, founded Thompson Printing and married Pearl J. Love. He died in Dayton in 1933.
With the generous help of distant cousins whom I discovered to my delight during my research on the net, and several county historians, including those of Montgomery, Saratoga, & Jefferson, NY, I have been able to trace and document much of Alex's lineage.
The two lines which have hit the proverbial brick wall are Thompson and Smith:
1) Joseph Thompson, born in England in 1812. He immigrated to New York sometime prior to his marriage to Anna Eliza Bartholomew, widow of Jacob Wilson, in 1841. With such a common name, and even though I have Joseph's date of birth, without knowing the county in England where he was born, I cannot determine his parentage.
2) Deborah Smith, b. Perth? 1814, the daughter of Lydia Smith and Unknown. I have been unable to connect Lydia, a widow on the 1830 Amsterdam Census, by process of elimination with any male Smith who died around that time. Lydia lived with her daughter, Deborah and Alexander McGregor. She disappeared from any records after Deborah died in 1853. I know nothing of the several of Lydia's children except for Deborah's youngest brother, Augustus Smith, b. 1829 who also lived with Alexander & Deborah. I have found an Augustus Smith, the right age, on the 1880 Troy, NY Census whose wife was Mariam, but I have been unable to document that this is Lydia's son. To confuse the issue even more, two of Joseph & Anna Eliza's other children, Sarah and Isaac also married into Smith families. I have been able to perform a limited trace on those family trees, but so far have found no connection to Lydia. Ah, the mysteries of genealogy! Anyone wishing to contact me with questions or answers may do so at copperwd@whidbey.com
