I know very little about my mother's side of the family, mostly because she doesn't know much about her family.

My mother
Gloria Elaine Marcher was born on November 21, 1914 in Los Angeles to Mary Barnes Marcher and George Marcher. She was an only child, although her parents had had a son who died before my mother was born.

George Henry Marcher was born on October 15, 1877 on a farm near Tomah in Monroe County, Wisconsin. Mom says he would hide in the barn after finishing his chores in order to read, otherwise his strict father would give him more chores to do to keep him occupied. He graduated from Tomah High School in 1899. In 1900 he was an optician living in Los Angeles. He later became a jeweler. He died on November 14, 1964 in Hayward, California, one week before Mom's 50th birthday.

My mother's cousin, Sterling Richard (Dick) Marcher, is the son of Frank (FA) Marcher, my grandfather's brother. For years he researched the Marcher family. Now his son Richard (Sterling Richard Marcher, Jr.) is carrying on with the research.

Mary Charls Barnes was in Kansas in 1880. I don't know much about her, other than my mother adored her, as she died before I was born. Mom says she had a very sweet personality. Mom thinks that she worked for a big railroad tycoon as a secretary during the era when the cross-country railroads were being built. Mom has often said that her mother "was born in March (the 23rd), got married in March (the 10th) and died in March (the 17th)." She also married a Marcher. She was within a week of turning 69 when she died in 1949.

My mother graduated from Los Angeles' Fairfax High school in 1932. She received an A.A. degree from Los Angeles Junior College 2 years later. Then she went to work as a clerk in the Employment Department at Lockheed in Burbank. She later worked in the Pacific Coast office of J.J. Newbury, a five & dime store chain. She loved to go on trips with the Sierra Club. She remembers going to to Bryce and Zion Canyons and to Monument Valley in Utah. Around 1935 she went to Alaska - on her own: She went by train to Vancouver, where she took a boat to Victoria. There she boarded the Prince Rupert steamship on the Inside Passage to Anchorage, Alaska.

My sister Linda was born in April of 1943, during World War II, when my parents lived on 29th Avenue near Foothill in Oakland. Four years later my sister Shirley was born when the family lived on Edgerley Street in Oakland. When Shirley was a few months old, the family moved to Meekland Avenue in Hayward. I was born Merritt Hospital in Oakland, but I grew up in Hayward.

The beginning of June, 2004, Mom is moving to Oklahoma, where Shirley and her family live. She will also only be a 7-hour drive away from Linda and her husband Chuck. Mom has 5 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren.

I've re-established contact with Mom's cousin Sterling Richard (Dick) Marcher, son of my grandpa Marcher's brother Frank Albion and Marcher family historian. He's given me in touch his son Richard's contact information. Richard is carrying on the family historian role, so I great hopes of filling in a lot of gaps on this page. Stay tuned!

"Heinz 57"

English
My mother's father's side was mostly English. Since English culture is probably familiar to most people in the United States, I won't go much into my English background. At least, not for now.

Welsh
On my maternal grandmother's side I am part Welsh. But that's all I know.
Welsh settlement in Kansas - The St. David's Welsh Society of Greater Kansas City
Welsh Settlements in Kansas

French Huguenot
My mother's mother's was also part French Huguenot. My mother doesn't know anything else about that part of our heritage. She says there may be other nationalities on her mother's side, too, but she has no idea what they might be.