This article is part of a series journaling my progress with what I call The Presidential Project. The first article was posted on 25 May, 2017 and can be found here: Back to the Blog and you can read forward day by day.
Friday, June 16, 2017
I suppose every family has a favorite dish or two that could be thought of as the “family food.” But can they claim a genealogical tie to a special holiday dish and a lunch box staple? I can! I’ll start with the genealogy story and you should soon be able to see where this is going …
One of my immigrant ancestors is William Durgy (c. 1632-1704). His origin is believed to be County Meath, Ireland. William was captured by Cromwell’s forces and sent to the Barbadoes, likely as a slave. Earning his freedom, he signed on as an indentured servant to Thomas Bishop of Ipswich.1 Bishop was a ship captain and was very prosperous,2 Also employed in the Bishop household was Martha Cross (1643-1727). Her father sued Durgy for “abusing” his daughter and Durgy counter-sued for Robert withdrawing his consent to marriage. Durgy won the case and their first child, John (1665-1739), was born two weeks later.. Practical justice, I presume.
William and Martha had as many as 10 children and their surname became the Americanized “Durkee,” My line is descended from their first son, John. You can learn more about the Durkee clan via The Society of Genealogy of Durkee website, here. They have published a book documenting the first six generations and back issues of their newsletter are also helpful in learning more about the Durkee family.
My line of descent is William Durgy, John Durkee, John Durkee Jr., Mary (Durkee) Armstrong, Olive (Armstrong) Tenney, Lydia (Tenney) Wright. Lydia married my patriot ancestor, David Wright. William Durgy is my 9th great-grandfather. So where’s the beef, you might ask?
According to The Society of Genealogy of Durkee, William and Martha are the progenitors of almost all the Durkees in America. One of their descendants was Eugene R. Durkee, who founded Durkee Foods in 1851 in Buffalo, New York. There is an interesting history for the Durkee Bottlers published by the Society for historical Archaeology, Inc. here. Eugene is descended from William and Martha’s son Thomas and is my 5th cousin, 5 times removed.
So there is the food connection but there are two items in particular to discuss. First we have the special holiday dish. In 1955, Dorcas Reilly, working in the home economics department of the Campbell Soup Company, came up with the recipe for Green Bean Casserole. The idea was to make use of two staples people had on hand: green beans and Campbell’s Mushroom Soup3 But what would a green bean casserole be without a topping of Durkee’s French Fried Onions??? Alas, in 1995 French’s Famous Foods, Inc. rebranded Durkee’s French Fried Onions with the French’s name.4
Meanwhile, from Swampscott, Massachusetts, another Durkee descendant, H. Allen Durkee, partnered with fellow WWI veteran Fred L. Mower to form Durkee-Mower, Inc., headquartered in Lynn, Massachusetts. They purchased the recipe for a sweet marshmallow cream and eventually branded it Marshmallow Fluff. A 1960 marketing campaign coined the name Fluffebutter for that lunch box favorite, a sandwich of peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff.5 2017 marks the 100 year anniversary of marshmallow cream now universally known as Marshmallow Fluff. There is an interesting article in the March 7, 2017 Boston Globe about Fluff and other New England confections Why Marshmallow Fluff couldn’t have been created anywhere other than Massachusetts by Mimi Graney, author and the founder of Somerville’s annual What the Fluff? Festival.6
H Alan Durkee is William Durgy’s 7th great-grandson and my 7th cousin, 2 times removed.
_________________________
2New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 4, William Richard Cutter p, 1772
3“Green bean casserole” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean_casserole
4“French’s History” http://www.frenchs.com/our-story/
5Fluffernutter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluffernutter
6Graney, M. (2017, March 7). Why Marshmallow Fluff couldn’t have been created anywhere other than Massachusetts. The Boston Globe. Lifestyle section.
Next Installment: TBD
Leave a comment