Rose McLaughlin was the daughter of John McLaughlin (1832-1922) who emigrated to the United States from Ireland with his first wife, Mary McGrorry.

Notes in a Bible belonging to Rose McLaughlin Major say John and Mary McLaughlin arrived in New York from Ireland on Dec. 7, 1851 aboard a ship called Vanguard. They settled in Skaneateles, but moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1858. They had a son, Willie, who was born Dec. 12, 1858, but survived only 11 days.

Mary McGrorry McLaughlin died in 1864 at the age of 30. Like her son Willie, Mary McLaughlin is buried in Louisville.

Widower John McLaughlin returned to Skaneateles in May, 1868. Shortly thereafter he married Mary Casey (1842-1907), also a native of Ireland.

According to the 1880 US Census, John McLaughlin was a blacksmith. He and Mary Casey McLaughlin have four children listed in that census: John (1869), Rose (1872), Eliza (1874) and Ellen (1876).

In 1893 Rose McLaughlin married John Major in Skaneateles. Rose notes in her Bible that her maid of honor was Kate McLaughlin, identified as her sister. Whether Kate was a nickname for Eliza or Ellen, or whether she had escaped the 1880 Census is unknown. (Another possibility, considering some of these Bible notes were made when Rose was nearing her 70th birthday, is that she was referring to her sister-in-law Catherine "Kate" Major.)

Rose and John Major lived in Solvay, about 20 miles from Skaneateles, and remained there the rest of their lives. Rose was an avid movie fan. One childhood memory – I must have been four at the time – was of Grandma Rose stopping at our house several times after she returned by bus from downtown Syracuse where she had attended a matinee showing of a new movie. She was always a welcome sight because she always arrived bearing candy bars. She stayed for dinner, then my father drove Rose to her home which was about a mile away in what to me was the forbidden territory of West Solvay, a place that existed only in the minds of people familiar with the rivalry between village residents on opposite sides of Woods Road Park, neutral turf in the center of the village.

Rose died in 1943. She and John had six children:

Emmett Leo Major (1894-1906)
Margaret "Maggie" Major Nicholson (1896-1987)
Viola "Lola" Major Kane Cullen (1898-197?)
William "Billy" Major (1900-1972)
Stanley Ernest "Buster" Major (1903-1985)
Irene Major Rand (1905-1962)

Rose and John Major with their children (about 1908). That's Maggie between her parents, then zigzagging toward the front it's Lola, Billy, Buster and Irene. Emmett, the first child of Rose and John, died in 1906 at the age of 12.