Pvt Edward James Rawson

Son of Mary Jane Ray McCormick and John Edward Rawson.

Half sibling to Mary Jane's older children, and to John Edward Rawson's subsequent younger children.

Grandson of Joseph and Mary Jane Keating Ray.

Joseph Ray was an Irish immigrant who had arrived in New York around 1820 to work on the Erie Canal.
Mary Jane Keating's father Barnard Keating was an Irish immigrant who had arrived in New York around 1800, leaving his parents Hugh and Anne Keating back in Ireland.
Mary Jane Keating's mother was Sarah (Seragher) Anne Pearsall.

According to the Keating-Ray family bible, Hugh McCormick died sometime during the year 1871 of unknown causes, at his Hancock, Wisconsin farm or elsewhere. His wife Mary Jane Ray McCormick was then left widowed at age 32 with six children under the age of 10, including a newborn. With this many small children to care for, someone had to have helped out - a role which likely initially fell heavily on grandmother Mary Jane Keating Ray and her second husband Daniel McCormick. Daniel's brother James McCormick still living back in Rexville or Greenwood, New York may have sent his youngest son Frank to live with or near Mary Jane in order to help her keep her farm intact.

In 1876, Mary Jane had a child with a neighbor man named Rawson, and named him Edward James Rawson. Later, one of Mary Jane's sons, Charles, was sent to New York at the age of 12, but died there during an outbreak of diptheria in 1879.

According to a direct descendant in 2012, the oral family history states that John Edward Rawson and Mary Jane were neighbors. Hugh McCormick died in 1871 and the relationship between Mary Jane and John began about two years later and ended with the birth of Edward James Rawson. John later married Francis Wilson and they had two children: Mabel Rawson born Aug 7, 1879 and Agnes J. Rawson born Jul 2, 1881. Unfortunately John Rawson died Oct 12, 1882, when his son Edward James was 6 years old. Mary Jane then died in 1889, leaving Edward James an orphan by the age of just 13. In the late 1890's, his two half sisters were listed as contacts in case of emergency on Edward James Rawson's Spanish American war records.