This website began as a gift from my son, Jeff Major, who took the name from my parents, Buster Major and Helen Smolinski (in their wedding photo, above). As I look back, I think my original idea was more along the lines of what became Facebook. I wanted a website that was a constantly updated family newsletter. I also wanted a family tree, but my first effort looked like something Charlie Brown dragged home for Christmas.

It was clear from the get-go the newsletter idea wouldn't work, not with folks who weren't as computer-obsessed as I was. However, several relatives I had never met found the site and offered assistance, relatives such as Charlie Major, a legend in his hometown of Skaneateles, NY, who provided much of the material that turned my sapling into a fairly substantial Major family tree.

Ted Skowron Jr. contacted me with news about the Majors in and around his hometown, Auburn, NY. He provided photos and made me aware of other distant cousins, one of whom, Kathy DeJoy, provided photos of our great-great-grandfather and his wife (left) and their home in Ireland.

Lisa McHugh Rigge of Camillus, NY, also introduced herself via email. She's a relative, too, on the side of my paternal grandmother – a McLaughlin. I had misidentified someone I mistakenly believed was my grandmother's sister. Lisa not only corrected me – telling me Sister Mary Antonia (left), a McLaughlin well known in Skaneateles many years ago, was my grandmother's first cousin – but also got me started on the McLaughlin family trees which have become a forest on this website.

Good ol’ Charlie Major provided an invaluable source of information when he sent me “This History of the McLaughlin Family” by Edward F. McLaughlin and Henry W. McLaughlin, who had grown up in Skaneateles. It was through this book that I finally found out how the McLaughlins could build a business around teasels

Anne Kornutiak Major of Raleigh. NC, checked in. She’s the widow of one of my first cousins, Billy Major, who grew up in my hometown, Solvay, NY. She also provided information and photos.

From out of nowhere came an email from Will Hier and his wife, Maureen O’Neill Hier of Otisco, NY, who filled in a lot of the gaps in the Major family connection with Ireland’s famous O’Neill clan. Thanks to the Hiers, I now have an O’Neill family tree, a small one with plenty of growth potential.

Next I received emails from a group of relatives who also were unknown to me – descendants of my great-grandfather’s brother, John Major, who settled in Buffalo, NY. First Kevin Major, then his cousin, Rita Major Crawford. Rita has been particularly helpful with information and also sent along an old newspaper story about her grandfather, a story that has been added to our Read All About It section.

Not long ago I heard from Elizabeth Smolinski Beshai of North Grafton, MA, with corrections and updates on the long-postponed Smolinski family tree. Elizabeth is the daughter of my cousin Jimmy Smolinski, who's now featured (whether he likes it or not) as one of the subjects in our Portraits section. His son, Jimmy, is in the BB gun photograph with my son, Jeff. This photo triggered one of the Solvay Tales. Some of my recollections can also be found in a couple of the "Solvay Stories" books edited by Judith LaManna Rivette, who also has many happy memories of the village that was center of our universe for many years. Like me,, a lot of Solvay residents consider their hometown a very special place.

Lately I've been brushing up on my Solvay history as well as finding many stories about my family on a website called www.fultonhistory.com

Through this website you can access millions of pages from old newspapers. The website motto: “Finding the Angels and the Devils in the Family Tree Since 2003.” True, but for me it’s so much more. In a way it's a do-it-yourself, New York State version of a 1973 book called “The Wisconsin Death Trip,” which, as I recall, was a collection of stark, disturbing photos often linked with newspaper stories, many of which dealt with grisly deaths and bizarre events from the 1890s and early 1900s. (I think someone somehow made a movie based on the book and there’s either a rock group or an album out there that also borrowed the title.)

Newspaper pages from 100 years ago are packed with many more items than a modern newspaper page, and several of their tales could easily be turned into horror films. I spent my adult life working for newspapers and didn't realize how much some papers in the early 1900s resembled today's supermarket tabloids. In those days safety was not a high priority – in the home, the workplace or on the road. Thus the gore. I've noticed, too, a widespread presumption of guilt whenever people were arrested. We may think that way today, but the mainstream media makes much more of an effort to be objective (no matter what both conservative and liberal critics may think).

Despite its reputation as "a simpler time," those good old days tested endurance in ways we can only imagine. And I've found several stories on how those times tested Majors, McLaughlins and other family members.

On a much more pleasant note, my parents and a few other family members left me hundreds of photographs which I have shamelessly exploited on the website. I wish more of the old photos had been identified; while it's unlikely, I hope some people will find this site, look at the photos in question and say, "Hey, isn't that ... ?" And then contact me.

Speaking of family photos, special thanks to two cousins, Maureen Mullally Fekete of Tully, NY, and her sister, Patricia Mullally Knopp of Lafayette, NY, for making available their old photographs, including several from the day their parents, Kathleen Nicholson and Robert Mullally, were married. Christmas was always my favorite holiday and my favorite Christmases were those that included a visit from Kathleen and Bob. Both are gone now – Bob departed much too soon – but the photos brought back a lot of great memories.

Also, Patricia Dowling Guernsey of Oldsmar, FL, has been generous with her photos. Another case of finding a relative I haven't yet met in person, but hope someday I will.

Anyone who knows me or knew my parents and/or my uncles Bill and Ed Smolinski also knew that our favorite vacation destination was a place called Sandy Pond, located about 40 miles north of Solvay near the village of Pulaski, NY. A significant number of my family photos were taken at Sandy Pond, which was appropriate because the place takes up significant space in my memory bank.

Turns out many others have similar feelings about the place and have emailed me photos and stories that are acknowledged on several Sandy Pond pages. And don't let the word "pond" mislead you. It's more of a Lake Ontario inlet and for decades offered one of the country's best beaches. That beach is still a good one, but visitors face several restrictions made necessary by the damage inflicted when the place became too popular for its own good back in the 1950s and '60s.

Finally, a story about one of my hobbies – well, it’s more like an obsession – also triggered surprising response. Seems a lot of boys – and that’s what we remain, boys – who played the Ethan Allen All-Star Baseball Game in the 1940s and ‘50s never got it out of our systems. That, in part, is why there are so many pages devoted to baseball, particularly to old-time players, many of them obscure. There’s something about the game ...

So thanks to all of those who have helped on this project. Like someone who has just won an Oscar, I know I haven’t acknowledged everyone. But – to haul out an old excuse – you know who you are. Thanks again.