Rankin Family

A June 20, 2015 Rankin Blogpost featured a Life Sketch of Ainsworth Hanna Rankin. A few corrections will be made here as more information has come available especially through newspapers.com website.  To see that blogpost and review his life sketch, go to "archives" at the        left side of this blogpost and scroll down to June 20, 2015.   " At age 19, June 21, 1916, he became a member of the New York National Guard with the Quartermaster Corps. He acquired the nickname "Doc" during his high school years.   Probably from his father who was a practicing doctor at the time. By 1918, Private Rankin was assigned to  the Army’s Chemical Warfare Service. He served in the Army’s Gas Defense Plant in Long Island. He also worked at The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper  along with some of his fellow illustrators from the New York area ." The Daily Star   Sept 24, 1918 Gas Defense Plant –Long Island City "There are men and wome...

Edna Urban, wife of James McClymont Rankin, mother of William Ainsworth Rankin, Sr. and James Hanna Rankin, brought the Urban Family to our Rankin family history.  The Urbans came from the France/Germany region of Alsace and immigrated to America beginning in 1839. Edna's grandfather, George-Wilhelm Urban (1811-1902), (known as William J.),  at the age of 28, left his homeland, Mertzwiller, Alsace-Lorraine, France, on a ship named CHARLES CARROLL and arrived in New York on May 6, 1839. He worked as a dyer, most likely producing dye for a clothing factory. William J. Urban His brother George (1802-1874) arrived a year later with his wife, Catherine Bowe (1804-1864) and four children:  They settled on a farm in the rural area of Tonawanda, Erie County, New York. Their next four children were born there. His brother Jacob (Jacques) arrived in New York port on June 12, 1852, on a ship named LEONIDAS with his wife, Christine Schmitt,  and daughter Marguerite age ...