Louisa May Alcott

Born: 29 Nov 1832, Germantown, PA
Died: 6 Mar 1888, Boston, MA

American Novelist
Common Ancestor:
Ebenezer Blakeslee
7th Gr Grandfather
of Merle G Ladd		 3rd Gr Grandfather
of Louisa M Alcott
 
Abigail Blakeslee Jacob Blakeslee
Abigail Nash Anna Blakeslee
Abigail Beers Anna Bronson
Ira Fancher Amos B Alcott
Lucilla Fancher Louisa May Alcott
Douglas C Ladd  
Irving L Ladd  
Allen D Ladd  
Merle G Ladd  
 
Relationship to Merle G Ladd:
4th Cousin, 4 Times Removed
Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832. She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth and May were educated by their father, philosopher/teacher, Bronson Alcott and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May.

Louisa spent her childhood in Boston and in Concord, Massachusetts, where her days were enlightened by visits to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s library, excursions into nature with Henry David Thoreau and theatricals in the barn at Hillside (now Hawthorne’s "Wayside").

Like her character, Jo March in 'Little Women', young Louisa was a tomboy: "No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a race," she claimed, " and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences...."

For Louisa, writing was an early passion. She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends. Louisa preferred to play the "lurid" parts in these plays, "the villains, ghosts, bandits, and disdainful queens."