Names
Halloween Census Whacking
With the crisis of my father’s recent illness and the minor drama of my own, I feel like I’ve been way out of touch the last two weeks. It’s time get back into the flow of things. I thought little census whacking for Halloween would ease my way back into writing. So I went hunting for Vampires, Zombies, Ghosts, …
October 31, 2009 Saturday at 6:24 pm
The Guild of One-Name Studies
In recent weeks, we’ve spent some time examining particular surnames and their variants. We looked at worldwide and regional distributin of names and we tried to determine what is actually a “variant” and what is a mere mis-spelling. Having been through that experience, I decided that I need to have some more robust guidance on the matter of surnames. That …
August 25, 2009 Tuesday at 6:01 pm
Breaking Down A Brick Wall–The Problem with Surnames, Part II
Fifth in a multi-part series I had hypothesized that my Gines people were associated with English-speaking people named Gines who came from the West Midlands area. They came to Virginia and North Carolina and from there moved on to South Carolina and other states of the Deep South, eventually winding up in Louisiana and Texas. That hypothesis was based on …
August 12, 2009 Wednesday at 11:58 pm
Breaking Down A Brick Wall: The Problem With Surnames
Fourth in a multi-part series In the comments to the last post our friend Apple [her blog is Apple's Tree; visit it!] writes: It certainly seems like the right family. I’ve seen some interesting name variations but how did they get Guion from Gines? Or visa versa. I’d be very comfortable going with this. That’s the very question presented for …
August 9, 2009 Sunday at 10:01 pm
An “American Name”?
I blogged about this several years ago, but now there’s a startling new development. The original story goes something like this: I was in England for a few years and one day driving to work out in East Anglia, there was a story on BBC Radio 2 news about a bank robbery that had occurred the day before. Apparently, the …
September 5, 2008 Friday at 4:07 pm
How About "Irena Does the Macarena"?
A New Zealand judge has taken extraordinary steps in a custody case involving a child wiith an unusual name. Family Court judge Rob Murfitt [found] a girl had been named Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii. He ordered the girl, the subject of a custody battle, to be placed in court guardianship so her name could be changed. A lawyer …
July 24, 2008 Thursday at 8:25 pm
One More Name . . .
I’ve just discovered a Kansas City cousin named Dorothy Long Gunn (1916-1998). She would be my mother’s first cousin, both of them being granddaughters of James William Long (1866-1945).
January 25, 2008 Friday at 2:45 am
Yes, Virginia, You Are a Hamm
I’m not sure I wanted to get into this, but, oh, well . . . . One of the books mentioned on my recent reading list is Bertha Venation by Larry Ashmead, who’s spent decades collecting funny names of real people. The post prompted this comment from Thomas MacEntee of Destination: Austin Family, in which he lists quite a few …
January 20, 2008 Sunday at 9:23 pm
He Certainly Deserves An Eternal Reward
Chris over at The Genealogue frequently spots and highlights unusual names. Recently, he had these (1, 2, 3). I don’t know if he’s seen the 1880 census for Clinton County, Iowa. On that census, there’s a nineteen year old grocery clerk, the son of German immigrants. Fredrick and Lisette Lindloff apparently named their son “Through.” That by itself would be …
June 24, 2007 Sunday at 1:22 am
