It's fun to discover an ancestor in Wikipedia. My mother's mother's mother's father was among several generations in our family to go to the Far East as medical missionaries. I have the original of this photo (above) in a photo album. I get a kick out of his middle name being Glasgow. It seems like an affirmation of our Scottish blood that goes beyond the 48% Scottish showing in my DNA reports. Someone immigrating to America must have had a deep love of the city of Glasgow though I don't find that as the birthplace of any of his direct lineage. He was born in Ohio, where my mom's father, another medical missionary in China, got his medical degree,
John G. Kerr is considered a philanthropist. He worked to provide smallpox vaccinations to thousands of children. He helped establish several of the first Western medicine hospitals in China and supervised the Boji for 45 years. He also opened the first mental hospital there. According to the article, “during his time in Canton, Kerr treated 39,440 inpatients and 740,324 outpatients from 4,000 villages.”
Kerr died in Canton at age 77. This is his original gravestone from my family’s album. But the cemetery was removed for the purpose of town development! He has a different stone in a memorial garden there now. I don’t know if the bones went, too.
I’ve blogged about China previously, sharing some of our family photos in China in the 1800’s and about a distant cousin who was also an early doctor in China, Female Doctor. My cousin was Leila Berkin, M.D. She too died in China but at age 40, leaving behind children age 10 and 11.
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Marie Judson 
Very cool Marie! I love gathering info from my ancestors. He is a very interesting man!
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Thank you, Robin. My mom’s father did a lot in China too. Saved newborn girl babies from doorsteps and started a school and orphanage for them, trained both men and women Chinese doctors.
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