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Mary Faith Wilson collection on family genealogy
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Mary Faith Wilson (1920-1996) was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Lawrence Otis and Mary Faith McAdoo Wilson. She had one younger sister, Nancy Otis Wilson (Mrs. Scott Lyons). She was a graduate of the Putney School in Vermont and the University of Chicago. She was one of the heirs to the Otis Elevator fortune. She was a freelance news writer in Washington, D.C. for many years, as well as a consultant on national public affairs to various organizations. She headed many fund-raising campaigns and briefly delved into real estate. She was also a member of the Georgia Historical Society. Through her work with the movement to restore and preserve the historic district of Georgetown (where she owned a house on Q Street), Mary Faith became interested in American history. She soon began gathering materials on her own family and their experiences in America. She wrote several manuscripts about different members of her family. She was a descendant of the McAdoo, Davis, and Brooks families of eastern Tennessee; the Hazzard family of South Carolina and Georgia; the Otis family of New England; and the Floyd family of Georgia. Mary Faith never married. She died in Washington, D.C. on November 21, 1996 and is buried in Chicago, Illinois (probably in Graceland Cemetery).
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This collection consists mainly of notes and manuscripts of Mary Faith Wilson regarding her family's genealogy. She wrote manuscripts on the Brooks, Davis, and McAdoo families of East Tennessee; and the Hazzard family of South Carolina and Georgia. There are handwritten notes about the Floyd family of Georgia and the Otis family of New England as well as a manuscript about the Otis family (the author of which is uncertain). There are also handwritten and typed copies of the letters and diary of General Charles Rinaldo Floyd (1797-1845), Mary Faith;s great-great-grandfather. There is also a copy of Augusta 'Gussie' Gallie Floyd's (1848-1926) diary, which was kept from 1872-1874.
Also included in the collection are 7 volumes of diaries of Mary Faith McAdoo Wilson (for the years 1906-1911, 1922-1925 and 1929-1933) and 1 diary of Mary Faith Wilson from 1927. Three boxes and 4 oversized folders of photographs accompany this collection and are described in VM 1588.
Also included in the collection are photographs of Mary Faith Wilson's family and friends. These pictures cover a wide range of dates and many different photographic processes are represented, from nineteenth-century daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, and card photographs to color film. The first box contains photos of the Wilson family and their homes in Illinois and Connecticut. The second box contains photos of the Lynch, Pitt, Otis, Davis, Brooks, and Dickson families. There are pictures of John and Charles Rinaldo Floyd as well of the remains of the Floyd's plantation homes, Bellevue and Fairfield (which are located in Camden County, Georgia). There are also copies of some of Charles Rinaldo Floyd's drawings. The last file in this box contains photos and negatives of unidentified people. The third box in this collection contains mainly photos of the McAdoo family.
The fourth box in the collection contains the 6 photograph albums. These albums belonged to Laurence Otis Wilson, Malcolm Ross McAdoo and his wife, Mary Faith Wilson, and Mary Faith McAdoo Wilson (2). The owner of the last album is unclear, but it was someone in the Wilson family. These albums range in date from 1900s to 1940s and contain photos from a variety of places all over the world. Some photos are identified but not all of them.
There are two portraits in this collection of General John Floyd and one portrait of Mary Faith Floyd McAdoo (Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo). The first portrait of General Floyd is a 1971 copy made by Christopher Murphy of Savannah, Georgia from the original portrait owned by Picot D. B. Floyd. The second portrait is a copy by Gregory Stapko from the original miniature of General Floyd. The oil portrait of Mary Faith Floyd McAdoo is also a copy by Gregory Stapko of the original owned by Brice McAdoo Clagett.
The boxes and four oversized folders in this collection are labeled as to who is in each folder. In oversized folder 4, there is an oversized genealogical chart of the Floyd-McAdoo line.
The boxes and folders containing visual materials are noted as 'VM' in the collection inventory.
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8 boxes, 4 oversize folders
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Copyright has not been assigned to the Georgia Historical Society. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Division of Library and Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Georgia Historical Society as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
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GHS 1588, Mary Faith Wilson collection on family genealogy, 1816-1994. Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, Georgia.
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