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by Jack Major
This website is named for my parents, Stanley "Buster" Major and Helen Smolinski, who were married in 1929 in Solvay, New York. My father was the grandson of one of three Major brothers who emigrated from County Derry, Ireland, in the 1860s and settled in Central New York. My mother was the daughter of one of three Smolinski brothers who, in the early 1900s, left Kolno, in what was then Russia-controlled Poland.
Majors
Three sons of John and Mary Major (above) emigrated from County Derry, Ireland, in the 1860s, and settled in New York.		 Smolinskis
Helen Kalinowska married Boleslaw Smolinski, one of three Polish brothers who emigrated in the 1900s:
Charles J. Major 1837-1905 Boleslaw Smolinski 1884-19??
William James Major 1839-1905 Ignacy Smolinski 1888-1967
John Patrick Major 1841-1914 Josef Smolinski 1891-1964

The O'Neill connection
William James Major, married Mary Ann O'Neill. Some of her siblings emigrated to the United States. My sketchy O'Neill family tree.
Enter the McLaughlins
Before the union of a Major and a Smolinski, there was the marriage of my grandfather, John Major to Rose McLaughlin. Both were raised in Skaneateles, but settled 20 miles east, in Solvay. The McLaughins, like the Majors, left Ireland to find a better life in America, and those who settled near Skaneateles, New York, may have done so because it reminded them of their homeland. (The Majors relocated from what later became Northern Ireland.)

O'Hara
Three McLaughlins and one Major married an O'Hara for whom I created family trees, though the family of Bridget O'Hara (1890-1917), who married Henry (aka Harry) McLaughlin (1885-1967) coninues to elude me. O'Hara family trees:

Mary O'Hara (1851-1905) and Dennis McLaughlin (1851-1925)

Elizabeth "Libbie" O'Hara (1864-1916) and Cornelius McLaughlin (1863-1943)

Michael J. O’Hara (1858-1934) and Anna J. Major (1863-1931)

Carrigan
Edward J. McLaughlin (1874-1933), son of Mary O'Hara and Dennis McLaughlin, married Mary Ellen Carrigan (1872-1931), daughter of Mary Jane O'Neill and Patrick Carrigan. Her mother was not related to the other O'Neills on our family tree, so far as I know, and was born in Massachusetts. Her father was born in County Tipperary, Ireland.

Mary McLaughlin (1868-1918), Irish-born daughter of Cornelius "Neal" McLaughlin, left home and joined other relatives who had settled in Central New York. She married Thomas Carrigan (1860-1918), son of one of Skaneateles' most interesting characters, Patrick C. Carrigan, the self-anointed "Irish lord." I couldn't resist looking into the family of a man with such an ego, so I created a small family tree, with the "Irish lord" as the trunk.

Also
• There's a tree for the family of ill-fated Tony Kane, first husband of my Aunt Lola Major.

• In 1931, Floyd "Blackie" Major married Anna Loretta McGinn, which prompted me to assemble a starter tree for the McGinn family of Skaneateles. Years earlier, John J. Major married Catherine McGinn.

• There's also are twigs devoted to the Doherty family connected by marriage to Catherine "Kate" Major. Whether this Doherty/Dougherty group also is connected with Elizabeth McLaughlin, who married Patrick Doherty, remains an unanswered question.

• There are trees for families who married children of Bolelaw and Helen Smolinski. Their son, Boleslaw (William) married Gertrude Maltby. Thus we spotlight the Maltby family, thanks to information provided by the late Jim Maltby. Finally, there is a Kaldowski family tree, assembled from newspaper stories. My Aunt Wanda Smolinski married Peter Kaldowski.
 
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