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My husband and I have been trying to find any living relatives on his mother's biological parents and siblings side of the the family. We did meet Uncle Jim jr. and he told us a little bit, but it seems a lot of the relatives have passed away.

The children/siblings of my husband's mother including her, were placed in either a poor house or orphanage possibly in Ossining, New York. Caroline M. Merchant-Lawrence-Preston was adopted by a couple in East Marion, NY, and she was told that if she misbehaved, she'd be sent back to her "bad" mother and so she never wanted anyone to know anything about her background and she didn't want to find any of her siblings, other than Uncle Jim jr; he found her. The other siblings information I got is from the family Bible and so here is what I have.James Menzies Merchant, Sr. m Susan Holahan Sept 11, 1897 in Manhatten, NY and then had 4 children.

 James jr. b. Jan 23, 1899; Sarah L. b July 11, 1900; Caroline M. b November 7, 1902; and John Stephen b Jan. 22, 1905.

Bits and pieces I have retrieved: James Sr. must have died and then Susan(she was born and raised in Ireland), became so poor she had to put her children in either a Poor House or an orphanage possibly in or near Ossining, NY. My husband Richard's mother was adopted by the Lawrence's who lived in East Marion. I have been researching and I keep going up against a "brick wall." I am hoping I can find what we have been searching for. I have tried to find information through Ancestry.com and I saw several names that seem to match, however, in order to search these records I have to pay the subscription and I have no funds to do that, so I'm hoping I am able to find someone who knows the Merchant family or is able to direct us as to where and what we can do to resolve this problem. Sincerely, Richard and Barbara Preston — Preceding unsigned comment added by BLee1 (talk | contribs) 21:37, 12 April 2012 (UTC)


In patrolling the wiki website, I came across your "help me" template.  If you will locate the closes Family History Center to your physical location, you can utilize their access, without charge, to the Ancestry.com website.  

In locating records or research direction for locating Merchant siblings in orphanage or porr house records of Ossining, New York, may I point you to the right side of this page under COMMUNITY to the Wiki Forums.  You will find researchers are very gracious in sharing their expertise in the wiki forums.  This would be a place to connect with research possibilities.

Happy researching. Caroline Wolfgramm Irwin 16:35, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

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