It is with much sadness that Clan MacFarlane Worldwide learned of the passing of our lead genealogist and friend, Mary Helen Haines, on August 14, 2024.
Mary Helen's mother was a "McFarland" whose paternal ancestors came to Pennsylvania from Ulster in the early 1700s. From there they moved to Virginia and onto North Carolina, Missouri, and finally to Texas in 1837, just after the Republic was formed. Her line comes off our clan chiefs via Andrew "The Wizard" 12th baron & 9th chief.
CMW member John Carroll McFarland passed away this month. His McFarland line are long time Kentuckians, descending from Benjamin McFarland and Ruth Buchanan Jack, part of the Robert McFarland line who settled in Lancaster County PA in 1718. John's ancestors are detailed in the section of this website McFarland Heritage Trail. His obituary follows:
William Wallace McFarland was one of our first year members and an outstanding family researcher. His McFarlands arrived in the early 1700s and settled in Cumberland County PA. His earliest American ancestor was James McFarland, 1695-1770. Will's obituary follows:
Some members of the Clan MacFarlane Worldwide may have met my father, Paul Monroe Funkhouser, and traveled with him and my mother, Mary, on a previous Clan MacFarlane trip to Scotland during the period 1998 – 2006. He passed away in October of 2009, but I would like to share some information about him that you may find of interest.
“We need to know where we came from in order to understand where we are going.” This was a constant theme which gave my father the incentive to study history and geography and to delve into family trees, genealogy and heraldry.
My brother, Eric, and I recall that our father spent a good portion of his free time reading, studying and searching for more details about our ancestors and other subjects that interested him.
Elizabeth Macfarlane, has passed away at age 93. She was born on March 7, 1918 at Stafford Springs in Connecticut and passed away on April 8, 2011 on Long Island in New York. A graduate of the University of Connecticut in 1939, she received her Masters of Public Health (in Biostatistics) from the University of Michigan's School of Public Health in 1950.
In her retirement she became an energetic genealogist and was the Director of Genealogy for the International Clan MacFarlane Society from 1991 until 2009 and the second, and longest serving, administrator of the MacFarlane DNA Project at FamilyTreeDNA.com from 2005 until 2009. She was also a founding member of the Clan MacFarlane Worldwide.
Elizabeth was a warm friend to everyone involved in MacFarlane genealogy for two decades and she will be missed by all of those whose lives she touched. May she rest in peace.