My maternal grandmother, after whom I am named (first name), was born Mary Charls Barnes on March 23, 1880 near Topeka, Kansas, possibly in Louisville. She was the baby of her family like me!

Grandma's mother, Sarah A. Martindale, was born around 1847 in Indiana.

Grandma's father, Erastus Barnes, was born between 1839 and 1840 in Indiana. His parents were born in New York state. He was inducted as a Privat into the 36th Ind. Inf. (Indiana Infantry?) of the Union army during the Civil War and was discharged as a Corporal. Between 1870 and 1874 the family moved to Kansas. In 1880 Erastus was the Postmaster and a merchant in Louisville, Pottawatomie County, Kansas. By 1910 he was living in Pomona, California.

On December 27, 1866 Erastus and Sarah got married in Miami County, Indiana. They had 5 children: Albert E. (born 1867 or 1868 in Indiana), Estella (born c. 1870 in Indiana), Evangeline (born c. 1874 in Kansas), Horatio Nelson (born August 22, 1877 in Kansas) and Mary Charls (1880). Horatio married Sarah J. Carpenter. They had a son, Fred M. Barnes, who was born around 1867 in New York. Horatio's draft registration card for World War I locates him in Cocoa, Brevard County, Florida around 1917-18, where he was a manager of Florida Citrus (farm?). (But he would have been over 50 by then - is that another Horatio Nelson Barnes??) He died in Polk County, Florida, in 1937 (unless Horatio Malson Barnes is not a typo in the Florida death index).

My mother only met her Uncle Bert once when she and her mother and Bert went on a vacation to Oregon in 1940. According to the 1910 census, he was living in Pomona. By the 1920 census he was living in Miami with his wife Evelyn F. Barnes, who was born in Ohio. He was a fruit grower. The 1930 census places him in Dade County, Florida.

Mary Barnes married my grandpa, George Henry Marcher, on March 10, 1910 in Pomona, California. They had a son, who died at birth. Their only surviving child, Gloria Elaine Marcher - my mother! - was born on November 21, 1914 in Los Angeles.

Mary Barnes Marcher died in Los Angeles on March 17, 1949. Alas, I was born "too late" to know her.