Mary Elizabeth Alexander

Brief Life History of Mary Elizabeth

When Mary Elizabeth Alexander was born on 16 September 1902, in Brumley, Miller, Missouri, United States, her father, William Laufette Alexander, was 20 and her mother, Malinda Elizabeth Luttrell, was 22. She married William Wesley Thornton on 6 July 1919, in Maries, Missouri, United States. They were the parents of at least 2 sons and 1 daughter. She lived in Glaze Township, Miller, Missouri, United States in 1930 and St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1935. She died on 13 January 1989, in Franklin, Missouri, United States, at the age of 86, and was buried in Pacific, Franklin, Missouri, United States.

Photos and Memories (1)

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Family Time Line

William Wesley Thornton
1896–1992
Mary Elizabeth Alexander
1902–1989
Marriage: 6 July 1919
Claude Omer Thornton
1921–1944
Frank Cordell Thornton
1925–1945
Thelma I Thornton
1927–

Sources (9)

  • Mary Thornton, "United States, Census, 1920"
  • Mary E Thornton, "United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942"
  • Mary E. Alexander Thornton, "Find A Grave Index"

World Events (8)

1903 · Department of Commerce and Labor

A short-lived Cabinet department which was concerned with controlling the excesses of big business. Later being split and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor splitting into two separate positions.

1904

St. Louis, Missouri, United States hosts Summer Olympic Games.

1927

Charles Lindbergh makes the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight in his plane The Spirit of St. Louis.

Name Meaning

Scottish, English, German, and Dutch: from the personal name Alexander, classical Greek Alexandros, which probably originally meant ‘repulser of men (i.e. of the enemy)’, from alexein ‘to repel’ + andros, genitive of anēr ‘man’. Its popularity in the Middle Ages was due mainly to the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC ) - or rather to the hero of the mythical versions of his exploits that gained currency in the so-called Alexander Romances. The name was also borne by various early Christian saints, including a patriarch of Alexandria (c. 250–326 AD ), whose main achievement was condemning the Arian heresy. The Gaelic form of the personal name is Alasdair, which has given rise to a number of Scottish and Irish patronymics, for example McAllister . Alexander is a common personal name in Scotland, often representing an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name. In North America, the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages, e.g. Spanish Alejandro , Italian Alessandro , Arabic or Assyrian/Chaldean Iskandar and Iskander , and their derivatives, e.g. Greek patronymic Alexandropoulos.

Jewish: from the adopted personal name Alexander (see 1 above) or shortened from the eastern Ashkenazic (originally Slavic) patronymics Aleksandrovich or Alexandrowicz.

History: A number of Scotch-Irish families of this name landed at New York in the early 18th century. By 1746, six of them were established in NC. Others came in through Philadelphia, for example Archibald Alexander, who came from Londonderry in northern Ireland in 1736 and established himself in VA. — The Revolutionary general William Alexander (1726–83) was always known as ‘Lord Sterling’ to his compatriots, although his claim to the title was denied by the College of Arms in London. His father, James Alexander, was a Jacobite who had fled to New York after the failure of the Jacobite rising in 1715. The claim to the title arose in connection with their ancestor Sir William Alexander, a courtier and poet at the court of King James VI of Scotland (James I of England), who created him Earl of Stirling in 1633.

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

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