Another account (based on a bible transcript from the Rankin family) says that his first wife Elizabeth May died upon their arrival in the New World, then he married a Mrs. Steel, by whom he had three sons, William, James, and Jeremiah.
At least one genealogist claims that the wife of John McGinley Rankin was Elmina Kell, and that it was his brother James Rankin who married Catherine Kerr. However, the cemetery inscription quoted from Centre Hill Presbyterian Church, Centre Co., Pennsylvania, says Catherine was the wife of John, and died in 1872 age 70. There are other discrepancies in secondary sources. The version passed down in the Victor family in the 1960's says Mary Kerr Rankin's parents were John McGinley Rankin and Catherine Kerr.
She remarried after the death of her first husband. While she was buried in Boulder Co., CO under the name of Mary K. Reedy, there is a marriage in Winnebago Co., IL, Mary K. Reedy to James "Akeroyd" Carpenter, 21 aug 1867. This is indeed our Mary Kerr Reedy; she and James A. Carpenter are on the 1870 census in Jefferson, Greene Co., IA, with her sons James H. and Edward H. "Reedly". She has not been identified on the 1880 census. She is in the city of Boulder, CO in 1900, living alone, but reporting that she had been the mother of 7 children, 6 of them still living. We have so far identified only four of them.
Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: pp. 100-101"
"(THE) RANKIN FAMILY of Centre County, of which William B. Rankin, of Bellefonte, is a worthy and respected representative, is of old Pennsylvania stock. The first of the line to settle in Centre County was William Rankin, the grandfather of the gentleman named, and a native of Franklin County, Penn., born November 5, 1770. He took a prominent place among the pioneers of this section, and was the second sheriff of Centre County, and from 1806 to 1810 a member of the State Legislature. His residence was in Spruce Creek Valley, where he died November 29, 1847, at the age of seventy-seven years. By his first wife, a Miss Maginley, he had eight children: (1) William M. and (2) James Munsey were prominent physicians, the former of Shippensburg, Penn., and the latter of Muncy, Penn.; (3) Joseph Alexander is mentioned more fully below; (4) Abigail married Ephraim Bailey, and now resides in Kossuth. Iowa; (5) Adam, deceased, was a farmer at Stormstown, Penn.; two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, died unmarried.
"By a second marriage (the last time), with Miss Huston, there was one daughter, Susannah, who died in early womanhood.
"The late Joseph Alexander Rankin, father of William B. Rankin, was reared upon a farm in Penn's Valley, at Centre Hill, near Potters Mills, the district schools of the vicinity furnishing the usual educational opportunities, of which he made the utmost, preparing himself for teaching..."
This sketch mentions eight children by William's first wife, but only names seven of them. The prevailing theory seems to be that John McGinley Rankin was the missing eighth child, which seems logical from the names and dates involved.
Birthdate computed from age at death. She had married Pierre Pranger, whose name appears in the town records of Bischwiller usually as Branck� or Brang�. Her second husband recognized her three children by Pierre Pranger (Pierre, Marie, and Esther) as his own heirs, according to a memorial dated 01 feb 1694 in the Protocoll of the Chancelry of Bischwiller (ADBR 6E5.2/166).
