Truly a fun and rewarding experience digging back into the family history. Our family had a line of builders and carpenters back to the Revolutionary War.
From our archives:
The Ray carpenters: Ira B Ray, direct descendant of the first Ray in America and son of Revolutionary War Veteran, Robert Ray, Ira’s son, George Milton Ray of Lakeside Resort, Diamond Lake Illinois and then his son Will Adrian Ray our grandfather.
I just discovered my grandfather Will Ray, my dad’s father with 13 children, was the the president of the Libertyville Carpenters local when it meant something more than just receiving benefits to work as a union carpenter. He helped build Mundelein Seminary in 1926, a huge project.
(Picture: My grandfather Will in the center, my father Charles immediately to the left.)
Not only that, but my dad Charles used to ride his bike through the woods to the seminary every day to deliver their mail and special packages.
They wouldn’t have believed at the time, that their descendent Steve Ray would become a Catholic and know professors at the seminary and have priest friends who graduated from Mundelein.