This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Author: bbffrrpp Surnames: McLaughlin Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.usa.states.massachusetts.unknown/7359.4.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi Diane, I went back to your first message to remind myself of some of the information. You have not mentioned whether you have looked at census information. You have the 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920 to browse at. By the way, was the family in MA in 1920 or had they moved to VT by that time? Also, you didn't mention whether you had contacted the Town Clerk in Wilmington for information on the birth-records there. http://www.town.wilmington.ma.us/Pages/WilmingtonMA_Clerk/fees2 The Town of Wilmington is not mentioned too often. That page says that they do charge an hourly fee for genealogy research. As in many towns, perhaps if researchers go to the Town Hall, with a specific question, they won't charge. (Cambridge does that.) Betty (near Lowell, MA) FYI: One of my husband's grandmothers was born in London, England, and came her to MA as a young adult. She was Annie Mary Magdalene McLAUGHLIN. The "family story" is that she had spent most of her childhood in a Convent. A believable story for the times. But, I did some research a few yrs. ago, and the story wasn't exactly true. Annie had lost her father when she and her 3 sisters were young teens. The mother couldn't keep them, so she placed them in a nearby Convent. But a year or 2 later she remarried, and she went to the Convent and got her 4 daughters back. (I didn't finish this research, so I don't know who Annie traveled with, and I don't know what happened to her sisters. If my memory is working, her mother back in England was alive, when Annie married in Cambridge, MA, to James GAVIN from Waltham, MA. Sorry, I don't remember details this morning.) Important Note: The author of this message may not be subscribed to this list. If you would like to reply to them, please click on the Message Board URL link above and respond on the board.