Recently a cousin asked me if I knew the significance of her father’s middle name Sterling.  As a genealogist I was able to trace an uncle of her grandmother whose middle name was Sterling. On further examination, the uncle’s mothers surname could be seen in previous Denny generations married to a McCrea. 

                Many of these McCreas were born in Sterling, Cayuga Co, New York. The town of Sterling was named after a famous American Revolutionary War hero General William Alexander, Lord Stirling. His title was his birthright heritage from his father and  Grandfather of Stirling Scotland.

               It has now been almost 200 years since the Alexander’s came to America, bringing their title of Lord Stirling. But the name Sterling, a nod to their beloved Scottish homeland, can still be seen with the naming of a town situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in upstate New York . The nod to the Scottish homeland continues with McCrea and Denny families, both of Scottish background, for generations into the twenty-first century in the United State of America.

                I am happy to share this story with my cousin, to tell her that grandmother(my great grandmother) Jessie Alice Shurr Reddig did not randomly name her son Edward Sterling, that it was a nod to her grandmother’s uncle  and to a  long ago homeland.