I thought I heard it correctly the other day. A radio item that mentioned astronaut Marsha Ivins.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA in 1951 Martha Sue Ivins graduated from Nether Providence High School, Wallingford, Pennsylvania, in 1969; then earned a degree in aerospace engineering in 1973 and worked with NASA’s Johnson Space Center. (I use the American spelling, of course).
She worked mainly on orbiter displays and controls before being assigned as a flight engineer in 1980 and co-pilot on NASA administrative aircraft. In 1984, Martha Ivins was selected as an astronaut candidate. She has flown aboard missions STS-32 (1990), STS-46 (1992), STS-62 (1994), STS-81 (1997), and STS-98 (2001).
In her 5 flights, she made a total of 970 orbits of the earth and travelled 22,870,000 miles spending a total of just over 1317 hours in space.
Martha Ivins retired from NASA on December 31, 2010.
Marsha Sue Ivins
So which part of our family does Martha come from?
As a change from my usual approach, I’m asking any American Ivins who might read this to fill in the gaps if they can.
Any takers?
Marsha Ivins is my 2nd cousin. In her case, Ivins is an “Americanized” form Ivnitski, as her grandfather came from Russia.
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Hi Denise. Thank you for that gem. It just goes to show the rich variety of origins that leads to our names. The Ivens (Ivins) that started in the UK pop up in many different forms in the hand-written records – sometimes even in the same family – and mostly we can determine the family connections. A good reminder to the family genealogists not to assume connections where they might not be. Again, thank you.
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