While reviewing the notes from my sabbatical and writing a manuscript I came across the idea of why my aunts/uncle's were given their names, so I'm doing some research. It is interesting to say the least as I hunt down family namesakes. Of course I will never know why or who they received their names from but its interesting to see the links between them and those named like them earlier. My oldest uncle, on my father's side, has the first name of his father and the middle name of his grandpa ... how's that for passing on the names of two prior generations; my only uncle that was a minister could have been named for maternal great grandpa who was himself a preacher/bishop of some reputation in the amish-mennonite society. Then there was the possibility my next to oldest aunt was named after a cousin who lived only one day. I'm finding links from favorite, close relatives to carrying on the name of an infant who died. My own father carries the first name of his brother who lived less than a year.
Then I made a list of my father's dad and mom and all their siblings - this list gets even more interesting and more family related. On both the men's and women's side there are names that just keep popping up; and the further back I go the more often a father's name is passed down to his son, likewise with mom and daughter; sometimes three consecutive generations this will happen. That's why its so important to have accurate dates, it doesn't take long to get off on a rabbit trail ..and you can almost take that literally. Every now and then a 'new' name will pop up, but then for a couple generations it passes on to someone else almost has though making sure it won't be forgotten. The major frustration as I said before is that all of this is pure conjecture because those who have passed on the name are gone.
Regretfully I'm not named after anyone that I'm aware of. If I ever find my name[s] carried by someone else that will indeed be a 'red letter' day! Sadly my children have done a much much better job of naming their children after family members; maybe if my kids agreed I could go back and rename them??! - probably not.
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I have one family in my tree that goes back eight generations. Not only does my line have the problem of having three successively named the same, but all had large families with other brothers, sons, etc who gave their children the name of their grandfather, father, etc. I tried figuring up how many relatives shared the same name at once but had a hard time keeping them all straight and gave up at around a dozen. I still get them mixed up because birth years are so close and have to refer on birth year and father at same time. Genealogy certainly isn't an easy 'sport' at times.
ReplyDeleteThis is true, but its so much richer and grander than the present day practice of naming our kids with whatever concept comes into our mind ... and I miss the family connection.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've found a few ancestors by just searching for the name of their first born son. Even looking at the second son and second daughter has given me help in discovering the surname for a wife by tracking down her parents.
ReplyDeleteAnyone in the future who just has my first name is going to wonder where on earth it came from. Heck, I don't even know other than it might have been popular at the time.