Why is this website called Henry’s boys? Well we had to start somewhere and Henry McLain is the ancestor the oldest of us can just about remember. Henry was born in the USA in Michigan right after the Civil War in 1866 and lived until 1942. He Mary Helena Elliot in 1894 and they had four sons – Elliot (b.1895), Leigh (b. 1900), Raynor (b.1903) and Stuart (b.1905).
Henry was born on the family farm in the Raisin County Township near Tecumseh, Michigan to Fulton McLain and Jane Jack. He was the fifth out of six children. When he decided it was time to get married he went to New York, where a bunch of other McLains lived, and courted his 1st cousin once removed Mary Helena Elliot (b.1874).
The following extract from the family tree shows just how Henry and Mary Helena were related.
It may be that Fulton II and Jane McLain, Henry’s father and Mary Helena’s grandmother, respectively, had different mothers, it is not clear. Fulton I only had two children that we could find and they were born 31 years apart, allegedly to the same woman – Nancy. This would mean that Nancy had a child when she was 17 then one when she was 48, so she may or may not be the mother of both children.
Henry's boys 