Ryder Heritage

I've created this blog at the suggestion of my cousin, Peggy Gardner, who is wonderfully inclusive and much more of an extrovert than I am. Sorry that the name is a little unwieldy, but simpler titles were already published.

The purpose of this blog is to centralize as much information as possible about the family of Thomas and Honore (O'Toole) Ryder, who settled in East Chicago, Indiana, USA, just after the turn of the last century -- what I believe to be their wedding photo is dated 1913. My late mother, Dorothy Ryder Lansen, was the sixth of their seven children. Peggy and I, and our siblings and cousins, are not only interested in the Ryders, per se, but also in other surnamed families connected to the Ryders and O'Tooles.

We decided to do our best to collect this information, as we are rapidly evolving from the Baby Boomers, to the Boomers, to the Fading Boomers. And fairly soon, whatever information is now available, by record or recollection, will fade into oblivion. So, if you are related to us, or know something about our family(ies) -- chime in.

Here's a bit of start: My grandfather was Thomas Ryder. He came to America from County Galway, Ireland. For at least a part of his life, he was a fireman. My grandmother was from County Mayo, Ireland. They had seven children. In birth order, they are: Martin, Helen, Margaret, Lucille, Mary, Dorothy, and Therese.