McKinney Dow Lambert Jr.

McKinney Dow Lambert, Jr.

Parents, Grandparents, and Beyond

McKinney Dow Lambert Sr.

Dow's father, Dow Sr., was Assistant Fire Chief of the Yakima Fire Department for 20 years, before his death in 1932.

Dow's father and mother, Bessie Llewellyn Meredith, in 1910, about the time of their marriage.

Bessie Llewellyn (Meredith) Lambert

Bessie Llewellyn (Meredith) Lambert, about 1910.

William Lafayette Lambert

28 Mar 1841 - 20 Mar 1917.

William Lafayette Lambert and

Martha Jane (Dillehay) Lambert

Martha was born 12 Nov 1847 and died 26 Jun 1898

A colorized version of William and John

William's younger brother,

John Furgeson Lambert.

27 Jan 1843 - 21 Mar 1928

John's wife, Francis Malinda (Faith) Lambert.

02 Sep 1854 - 02 Sep 1905.

Bessie's mother, Delilah Viola (Slasor) Meredith, 15 July 1861 - 20 Sep 1927

Bessie's mother, Delilah (Slasor) Meredith

Rogues and Scoundrels

Dow Jr. became interested in genealogical research in the late 1980s. He soon began making contacts with cousins from various branches of the Lambert line, and he spent many hours tracking down sources of information about every family member he learned about. In this way he was able to trace his roots back to his great great great grandfather Philip Lambert Sr., born in 1737 Laindon Hills, Essex, England.

Philip, and his brothers Jeremiah and William, the only known children of the union of Thomas Lambert and Elizabeth Trott, were either inept petty thieves, or clever opportunists who wanted to take an ocean voyage but couldn't afford the fare. Whatever the truth of the matter, they set sail for America sometime in 1754, courtesy of the court of King George, with a seven-year contract.

Philip evidently did well, settling in Virginia, and toward the end of his indentured servitude, married Mary Ann Henderson, moved to Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and begat Job Lambert in about 1760. Job apparently prospered, years passed, and he married Hannah Rice, who on 18 Sep 1800 gave birth to Ezekiel H. Lambert in Carter County, Kentucky.

At the age of 18, on 9 Dec 1819, Ezekiel married 15-year-old Margaret Mary Ferguson in Cabell County, Virginia.Together they produced several more Lamberts, including William Lafayette, on 28 Mar 1841, in Carter County Kentucky.

One of William's older brothers, McKinney, struck a deal with William that has had a lasting impact on William's male progeny. The story is that after William married Martha Jane Dillehay on 18 Feb 1866, McKinney told William that if William would name his first son after him, McKinney would buy the boy his first pair of long pants. They shook hands, time passed, McKinney Dow Lambert Sr. was born on 17 Dec 1873, and when some years later he was ready for his first pair of long pants his Uncle McKinney refused to pay up. This greatly annoyed the lad, and from that point on, the first of three McKinney Dow Lamberts vowed to go by his middle name, and only use his first initial rather than his first name. When, after M. Dow Lambert Sr. married Bessie Llewellyn Meredith on 24 Jun 1910, and they finally produced a son after three daughters, McKinney Dow Lambert Jr. was put on the birth certificate on 27 Feb 1924, but M. Dow Lambert Jr. was his name. Or, much to his dismay when he became old enough to think of such things, "Junior". And Junior resisted naming a son after himself until he had three of them and got tired of thinking up new names for boys so finally, on 22 May 1950, McKinney Dow Lambert III arrived to carry on the tradition. But he was never called Junior. And there will never be a McKinney Dow Lambert IV!

In 1996 Dow Jr. and his sister Eloise traveled to Iowa, met some terrific relatives, and took lots of pictures of headstones in different cemeteries, including one called the Lambert cemetery. On this adventure, they tracked down information on his great uncle McKinney, and actually found the homestead where McKinney lived for 53 years with his wife, Lydia Blanchard Lambert. Dow and Eloise met the current residents, who said the place was still known locally as the Lambert homestead, and was at the end of Lambert Lane in Percival, Iowa. McKinney and Lydia were married in 1852, and McKinney died in 1905.