Robert Livingston(e) Morton

[Stephanie Ellin Morton]

 

My father William (b.1927) is the youngest of 5 sons of Robert Livingston(e) Morton of Brooklyn, NY, and Marie Grant.  My father was "baby Bill", because he was the last boy to be born.  The first son was named William, but he passed away before my father was born.  Since his older brothers already had been given the only other choices of names in his family (Robert, Thomas & James) my father was given his "recycled" name. 

I know that my great-grandfather was also Robert Livingston(e) Morton of Brooklyn, NY, but I am just starting my search and have been told at Ancestry.com that his name cannot be found.  He would have lived in Brooklyn, and possibly moved there at some point from the upper Hudson River Valley area, during the mid1800's and early 1900's.  I never met him, and believe that he must have passed away before I was born in 1952. 

Does anyone have information on him and his family? 

 

[William Douglas]

Welcome to our Community Forum, Stephanie.

If you type 'Morton' into the search box at the top of the page, you will find a number of others who are researching the Mortons. Hopefully, you can get together and make progress.

Yours aye,

William

[barbara l march]

stephanie

this is your cousin currently living in michigan.  according to my dad, robert jr, he had twin brothers who died when they were 9 months old.  they had been born with heart defects.  my dad was born in newark nj in 1916 and i remember our grandparents living in an apt in the bronx until they eventually moved to a house in north babylon.  while they were in the bronx our grandmother kept a bible in the hallway which had handwritten pages from I thought was Mary Morton who married dr livingston.  However history shows that he was married to a mary moffatt so maybe i had her last name wrong.  grandma eventually tore out the pages as she said that she was tired of everyone in the family fighting over who was going to get the bible.  my dad had the bible and i saw it when i was at their house in 2005 but didn't come across it after he died.    hope this info helps

barbara

[Stephanie Ellin Morton]

Hi, Barbara.  Glad to have found you again.  We tried to get in touch with you when we went to visit with your mom in No. Babylon, but I couldn't find the phone number when I tried to look you up.  Can we try to stay in touch now?  The Bible story I heard was that Grandma got angry with Grandpa, who teased her about her family name.  And that was why she tore up the family tree page.  Have you done any research about the family tree?  Your dad seemed to be the only one who knew or cared about our ancestry, and when I visited him in Florida about 12 or 14 years ago (maybe longer?) he told me that his grandparents both had native American blood in them.  Did he tell you this, too?  My father said that there were 11 children, but a cousin on Long Island, desended from the Wing side, had a copy of a birth record of William being born in 1917.  My dad was born in 1927, and she told me that the first William had died and that's why my dad got the recycled name.  In the Morton family the boys had a choice of 4 names - Robert, William, Thomas and James.  And this has been for centuries.  I suspect there is a deeper history to our family, but my dad wasn't in the least interested in it.  I may go to the Wing family reunion on Cape Cod on June 15th.  Our great-grandfather on dad's side was the son of Emma Wing, who was descended from Plymouth Colony founders.  I can send you that portion of the family tree if you contact me at [e-mail]

[barbara l march]

Hi Stef

Our greatgrandmother whom I met, was supposedly part Indian.  She had a picture in her house of when she was younger and she definitely looked like she had some Indian blood.  Supposedly her cousin married someone who was part American Indian.  It was my understanding that they were from the Indian tribe in PA.  Haven't done any research as the Morton family was so spread out around the country and didn't seem to stay in touch with each other.  I only know what my dad told me but I know from grandma that she tore the pages out of the Bible due to the family fighting over it.  My dad could never find a record of his birth so he had to use his record of his baptism when he joined the military.  I also know from grandma that she went to a Catholic school and she had no love of the nuns.  This dislike carried over to the family and I know they were raised in the Episcopal church.  So hard to find out about the family because of their distance but my dad seemed to be able to pass some of the history unto me.  Will definitely stay in touch