and genealogy. Esperanza is so inextricably linked to the first two generations (Julie Palmer/Morris Smith) and Helen Yale Smith/William Webster Ellsworth) that it is weirdly easy to overlook the next ninety odd years of influence. I was flipping through some documentation relating to one of my long term projects, the transcription of the Mavourneen‘s logs, when I hit an amusing factoid. George Creevey, who married Lucy, the daughter of Helen/WWE, had a motor yacht named Mavourneen. His brother William had a motor yacht by the name of Eileen in 1912. Now the question arises, did William name the yacht after George’s daughter, Eileen born in 1910, or was George’s daughter named after the yacht? The problem being that I don’t know how old the yacht was… In either case, that George and William were close to their Scots-Irish roots, despite several generations in the Adirondacks seems clear.
Possibly the boat and the baby were named for an earlier Eileen? What an amusing puzzle. I hope you find the answer. š
It is certainly possible, but if so, it isn’t an Eileen who is related: that is the first and only time the name pops up. What I am hoping is to be able to track down the boat with more certainty. It may be doable, the NYC papers loved to report on yacht races, and I found that reference in the Times. In any case it adds a dimension!