The Carringtons go way back in America, almost as far back as a white man can. My sister did a family chart and learned that Edward Carrington arrived in Massachusetts in 1632. Where he came from in England and what his trade was and even how old he was, I don't know. Since she didn't find any parents for him, presumably he was in his teens or older. [I like to say we came over on the Juneflower.]
    In any case, there's nothing about a wife either but he had a son, Dr. Peter Carrington , who moved to New Haven, where he died in 1727. He and his wife, Ann Wilmot, had 11 children, the oldest of whom, John (July 10, 1672-1757), had 6 children. John was born in New Haven.
    His 4th child and 2nd son, Abraham (Nov. 11, 1733-1785?), had 12 children. Reverend David Carrington (Sept. 5, 1767-May 8, 1809) was the 6th and married Thankful Tolles in 1788 in Woodbridge Church. They were less fecund--they had only 4 children.
    The 3rd child and only son was Daniel (Dec., 1796-March 12, 1854) married Rachel Dorman on March 4, 1821, in Woodbridge Church and they had 6 children. The 3rd child (and 3rd son) was Abram E. Carrington (May 23, 1829-Jan.23, 1908). He married twice, first to Sarah Prichard in April 8, 1857, and then to Mary J. Patterson. In any case, he had a lot of children too: Otis Edward Carrington, my grandfather, was the 7th of 13. He was born in 1876.
    Among my grandfather's siblings was Hiram Carrington, who ran a large dairy farm in Bethany, where my father had been born. Hiran had a great many healthy sons and my second cousin Larry McDonald lived next door with his sister and parents. Larry was the only in the family of my age but he was a farm boy and had a lame leg. Clara, his mother, was my Aunt Ethel's daughter by her first husband and she and my father were close growing up, being close to each other in age. Larry's father had Parkinson's disease.
    My grandfather married Charlotte Clark. They were living in Bethany when my father was born but moved when my father was still a teenager to the house on Kings Highway that I visited until he moved to Florida when I was about 10. They had five children: Bernice, Beatrice, Alfred, Howard, and Charlotte. My grandmother died giving birth to Charlotte and my grandfather married his brother's widow, Ethel, who brought to the marriage children of her own. So my father grew up in a large household (though not as large as some of our ancestors). For some reason, he seemed to be closest to his cousin, Clara.
    Around 1948, my grandfather moved to a small house near Kissimee, Florida. He committed suicide around 1954 because he thought he had prostate cancer. Autopsy showed it to be just a recurrence of his prostatis.
    According to my sister, my grandmother, Charlotte Clark Carrington, can trace her ancestry all the way back to the Mayflower and we are related to the Brewsters.

Otis Carrington (probably in the 30s)--Ethel & Otis Carrington in Florida (in the 50s)

    There are lots of other Carringtons in the New Haven area. J.B. Carrington was in the list of subscribers for the New Haven District Telephone Company on February 21, 1878, the world's first telephone directory. There was also a Carrington Pharmacy in Cheshire when I was growing up, but I don't know how we were related.
     Henry Beebe Carrington was from Wallingford, went to West Point, and was an officer in the Civil War. Later he was sent to the West, where he was in charge of Fort Phil Kearny, a small outpost in the foothills of the Little Big Horns, the scene of the Fetterman Massacre on December 21, 1866. The story is told in Fort Phil Kearny, by Dee Brown. Later he became a desk general in Washington.
    The New Haven Journal-Courier was founded by a Carrington in 1820 and both that paper and the New Haven Evening Register were published by the Carrington Press until after I graduated from college. Somewhere down the line, an eldest son had only daughters and so the newspapers (and the money that went with it) went into the hands of a family named Jackson.
    In Charleston, S.C., "William Carrington, who was born in Connecticut ... came to Charleston about 1830 ... about 1835 Carrington founded his own firm of W. Carrington & Co., who are usually spoken of as jewelers." (Contributions from THE CHARLESTON MUSEUM

    Bernice Carrington was the oldest of my grandfather's children. She never married. She became a nurse and worked in a hospitals in Cleveland and Boston then became a head nurse in a hospital in New York City. Marilyn and I visited her there when I was 14 but I don't remember what we did. I think we went to Radio City. Shortly thereafter, she left that job to run a nursing school in a hospital in Ganado, New Mexico, on the Navajo Reservation. She was there about 20 years then retired to a home in Penney Farms, Florida, which was run by the church she belonged to, where she died at about 84 years of age, probably due to the circulation problems in her legs.
    My Aunt Bernice was a very effusive woman. Although I liked her (I think she gave me my first Roger Tory Peterson bird book), I was, like most small boys, embarassed by her effusive hugs. When I was six years old, she was visiting and I rushed out of my room, tripped, and came tumbling down the stairs. She hurried to pick me up but I looked up at her and said, "Gee, it's lucky I wasn't hurt."
    I saw her in Penney Farms several times while I was living in Gainesville, about an hour away. Once we went to Saint Augustine to walk around.
    My Aunt Bernice also told me once that she remembered going to the house of their great-uncle Edward Trowbridge Carrington in Beacon Falls, who was publisher of the New Haven Journal-Courier and always walked to the office. (A bit difficult to believe--it's a good day's walk to New Haven from Beacon Falls. Also, there's no Edward Carrington on my sister's genealogy chart, although I had already heard the name and knew he was associated with the paper, which was founded by a Carrington back around 1820. I had always assumed he was my great-grandfather, due to the handing-down of first names to middle names--from Otis Edward to Alfred Otis to my brother Wayne Alfred.)

    Beatrice Doolittle was the next oldest. She lived with her husband Howard, who worked for the New Haven utilities company, near the Long Island shore in East Haven. Howard had diabetes. They had a son, Sherwood, who died at the age of 16 before I was old enough to know him. Then they adopted twin sisters, Marian and Peggy, who were somewhere between Marilyn and me in age. We used to go down there and go swimming in the Sound until my father had a falling out with Beatrice around the time I reached early puberty. I don't know what the problem was. She died in her early 60s.

    My father, Alfred Carrington was Otis and Charlotte Carrington's middle child.

    Howard Carrington was next in line. He married Lydia (whom we called "Aunt Leda") in 1938, the same year I was born. He served in the Army in World War II. They had two children, Howard (a year or two younger than me) and Elaine (about my brother's age), who played the accordion. While I was growing up, they lived in Milford, Connecticut, but moved to Florida when I was a teenager. I think it was after my grandfather died. Howard died of Alzheimer's in the mid 90s.

Howard & Alfred Carrington

    Charlotte Carrington Robertson was the youngest child of Otis and Charlotte Carrington. My grandmother died of complications in her birth. She is the only one of her generation still alive. She joined the WACs in World War II, where she met her husband, Connie Robertson. They moved to his home state, Texas, where he worked for the railroad. I believe they had two boys. At first they lived in Waco, then they spent quite a few years in Arlington, outside Dallas. Currently (2009), they live in Quitman, Texas.

Aunt Charlotte with Grandpa Carrington, ready for the WAVEs, and with me (1942)

Aunt Charlotte, 2008