Showing posts with label Surnames. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Surnames. Show all posts

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Bad Baby Names I Have Found

I haven't had a chance to read Bad Baby Names: The Worst True Names Parents Saddled Their Kids With, and You Can Too! yet, but it looks like great fun. The authors of this book have combed the U.S. federal census records to find the absolute worst names parents have given their children. They found names like Fanny Pack, Fanny Whiffer, Post Office, Al Caholic, Anita Bath, and Amanda Hugginkiss.

I'd like to add my contribution to names in the census that I found to be rather interesting combinations. I hate to say these are bad names - the parents who picked these names must have liked them, but I wonder what the people who bore these names throughout their lives thought.

Weather seems to be a theme. I have found people named Frost Snow, Early Frost, Early Snow, Summer Snow, Summer Weathers, Stormy Winters & Sleet Rainey.

Perhaps these parents might have had grandiose plans for their children when they gave them the first name of King - I found children in the U.S. census called King John, King David, and King George.

These parents seem to be thinking about one thing when they gave their children names related to money: Dollar Quarter, Dollar Cash, Money Grant, Money Persons & Money None.

Some interesting names with a produce theme are Orange Field, Orange Woods, Orange Hill, Strawberry Field, & Lettuce House.

Perhaps these parents were thirsty when they named their children Pearley Waters, Dewey Waters, and Drink Perier.

And the person who would be great to have as a family member: Rich Cousin.

You can search the U.S. census online for free at Ancestry.com to find your own Bad Baby Names. See what you can find.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

"Our Name in History" Series of Books now at Amazon

Our Name in History


The Ancestry.com "Our Name in History" series of books is now available at Amazon.com through BookSurge, the Print on Demand Service. These books give the history behind a family name in a custom-printed book.

The Our Name in History series is customized by surname and created using historical records dating from the 1600s to provide a blend of interesting facts, statistics and commentary about a surname. There is a unique book in the series for each of the most common 279,000 last names in America.

If you are looking for a unique Christmas present, this series serves as an excellent entry level tool to help the beginner and non-genealogist get excited about family history. The end of the book also has a section on “How to gather and organize information about your family”.

The book follows a family name through history to get an idea of where people sharing the surname settled and where they may reside today in the United States, Canada, England and other countries.

The book differs from other “surname” books in the past in that the “Our Name in History” book is actually full of interesting FACTS about the last name. Ancestry takes the records from the Ancestry website and other sources and pull these facts out and summarizes them in a custom book. The facts that are included in these books ranging from name distribution to life expectancy to Civil War service to immigration.

The “Our Name in History” books by Ancestry include information about a surname, not a particular individual or family. I got one of the books last year when they were available from the Ancestry.com website. My husband, who is not a genealogist, found the book of his surname fascinating and read the book cover to cover.

To find your surname, click on Our Name in History and add your surname to the Amazon search box. Free shipping.

The press release yesterday says:


The Our Name in History series leverages Ancestry.com's unmatched historical data to chronologically trace a particular last name and tell its story through interesting facts placed in a historical context," said David Symonds, general manager, BookSurge. "These unique books offer hard-to-find historical information on hundreds of thousands of common U.S. surnames and make a great holiday gift for friends and family."

"This collection sets a new standard for customized books available on-demand," said Scott Sorenson, Senior Director Commerce of Ancestry.com. "

With BookSurge's Print on Demand technology, it's now economically possible for us to make this breadth of selection available to millions of Amazon customers. We are excited about this collaboration that allows more people access to these timeless, priceless books." The 279,000 last names represented in the Our Name in History series account for nearly 90 percent of all U.S. households, according to the 2002 U.S. White Pages.

To create these books, Ancestry.com studied more than five billion names from U.S. Census data, as well as immigration, birth, marriage, death, military and other historical records to detail origin, definition, popularity and other facts unique to each name"

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Regal Blood Flows Through The Veins of Many Irishmen

If you are an O'Neill, O'Gallagher, O'Boyle, O'Doherty, O'Donnell, Connor, Cannon, Bradley, O'Reilly, Flynn, (Mc)Kee, Campbell, Devlin, Donnelly, Egan, Gormley, Hynes, McCaul, McGovern, McLoughlin, McManus, McMenamin, Molloy, O'Kane, O'Rourke or Quinn, you could be a descendant of the most powerful rulers of Ireland.

Trinity College's genetic lecturer Dr. Dan Bradley study found that three million men of Irish descent and one in fifty Americans can trace their ancestry to King Niall.



Regal Blood Flows Through The Veins of Many Irishmen

On St. Patrick's Day, everyone feels a little bit Irish. Officially, 34 million Americans can trace some of their ancestry to Ireland. But did you know how many can claim royal Irish blood? Well, using DNA tests, scientists at Trinity College in Dublin discovered some very regal results.


With its ancient castles and folklore, many in Ireland had long claimed royal descent. ... many traced their line back to a 5th-century Irish ruler named, dauntingly, Niall of the Nine Hostages. The common Irish surname 'O'Neil' means grandson of Niall, but some thought he was more legend than history. That is, until old King Niall met modern DNA testing.

Read the complete article http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2959773&page=1



http://www.familytreedna.com/matchnialltest.html
O'Neill DNA story & testing

Surname Origins.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Centre County and Clinton County Pennsylvania Biographies

Centre County and Clinton County Pennsylvania Biographies

Biographical Sketches and Genealogies have been extracted from the book History of Centre & Clinton Counties, published by John Blair Linn, 1883


PA Biographical Sketches include:

Alexander, Elizabeth; Alexander, James; Alexander, James; Alexander, Josiah; Alexander, William; Alexander, William; Allison, Archibald; Allison, Matthew; Allison, William; Anspach, John; Antes, Philip; Austin, Jane; Bailey, Richard; Bailey, William; Baird, Jane; Baird, Nancy; Baker, Samuel; Barber, James; Barnhart, Henry; Barnhart, Jacob; Barnhart, Mary; Bathurst, Antes; Bathurst, James; Bayard, Dr. A. W.; Bear, George; Beaver, James Addams; Bechdol, David; Bell, John; Benner, John; Benner, John; Benner, Philip; Berry, Jacob; Bierly, Anthony; Bierly, Anthony Jr.; Bierly, John; Blair, David; Blair, Eleanor; Blakely, Elizabeth; Boal, David; Boal, Elizabeth; Boaz, John; Boggs, Andrew; Boggs, John; Boggs, Robert; Boggs, William; Bollander, Stephen; Botorf, Jacob; Brady, William Perry; Brew, Thaddeus; Brisben, William; Brisbin, John Jr.; Brisbin, John Sr.; Brungart, George; Brungart, Jacob; Brungart, Martin; Bryson, Robert; Buchanan, General George; Buchtel, John; Burchfield, William; Burnside, James; Burnside, Thomas; Caldwell, Jane; Caldwell, Thomas; Callahan, Charles; Cambridge, Constans; Cambridge, John; Campbell, Cleary; Campbell, David; Campbell, James; Canfield, Dr. Ira; Carner, William; Carson, Margaret; Cathcart, William; Chambers, Elijah; Chambers, James; Conser, John; Cook, Martha Walker; Cook, William; Cooper, Rev. Samuel; Corman, George; Crothwaite., Robert; Curtin, A. G.; Curtin, Dr. Constans; Curtin, Roland; Curtin, Roland Jr.; Dale, Christian; Dale, Henry; David, Daniel; De Hass, John Philip; Dobbins, Dr. Daniel; Dougherty, James; Downing, Thomas; Dubbs, Oswald; Dubbs, Oswald; Duncan, David; Dundas, Isabella; Dundavy, D.; Dunlap, Col. James; Dunlap, John; Eckley, Eli; Elder, A. M.; Ellenbarges, Jacob; Ertle, Valentine; Etters, John; Etters, John; Etters, Mary; Everhart, William; Everly, Christian; Ferguson, Thomas; Fetzer, Michael; Fisher, Rev. Peter; Frank, George; Furey, John; Furey, William; Gast, Christian; Gast, Christian; Gast, Nicholas; Gill, William; Glenn, John; Glenn, John; Graham, George; Gramly, Adam; Gramly, Francis G; Gramly, John; Gray, John; Gray, John L.; Gray, Peter; Gray, Peter B.; Green, Joseph; Green, Joseph Jr.; Green, S. Miles; Gregg, Andrew; Gregg, John Irwin; Hale, James T.; Henning, John

Look for more biographies from Centre and Clinton Counties as this is an ongoing genealogy project.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Erie County, Pennsylvania Biographies

Erie County Pennsylvania Biographies
Biographical Sketches and Genealogies have been extracted from the book History of Erie County Biography, published by Warner, Beers & Co.; 1884.

PA Biographical Sketches include:

John Abell; F.F. Adams; Dr. Charles Aichner; George A. Allen; William P. Atkinson; F. A. Austin; Elijah Babbitt; Francis Bailey; Isaac Baker; Peter Barker; H.R. Barnhurst; William Bates; F. Bauschard; George Baxter; John Baxter; Philip Becker; C. R. Beechling; E. Sherlock Belknap; E.C. Bennett; Rev. A. L. Benze; Ludwig Bier; John H. Bliss; Jacob Bootz; Maximilian Bosch; Jonas Bowers; Joseph Boyd; John Boyle; C. Brandes; Gustav F. Brevillier; C.M. Briggs; Conard Brown; R.B Brown; S.H. Brown; William A. Brown; G. W. Brubaker; J. M. Bryant; J. Bryce; A. P. Burton; George Burton; Lewis Bush; James Campbell; C. M. Carlson; John Carter; James Casey; Thomas Casey; A. H. Caughey; E. F. Christian; David Clark; William Clark; H. V. Claus; F. A. Clemens; John Clemens; Frank Cleveland; Washington Cleveland; John Coates; J. R. Cochran; Robert Cochran.

This is an ongoing project, so watch for more biographies to be posted at a later date

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Surname Origins and Last Name Meanings

Have you ever wondered the meaning of your name and its origin?

Your surname may tell a story of your ancestors from hundreds of years ago - where your family lived, what they did for a trade, their personality, or how they looked. You can look up your surname origin in this FREE online Surname Dictionary.

Surname Origins and Last Name Meanings.

My surname Reid is a Scottish name meaning red hair or ruddy complexion. I don't know how many Reids today have red hair or a ruddy complexion, because none in our family do. But it is fun to imagine a red-headed Scotsman of the Middle Ages as the progenitor of our family line.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Bucks County Pa Biographies

Biographies from History of Bucks County, by J.H. Battle published in 1887, have been transcribed.


Biographical Sketches include:

Althouse, Samuel; Bewighouse, Abraham; Bewighouse, John; Bibighaus, Samuel; Bissey, John; Brumbaugh, Simon; Buehrle, William; Crouthamel, Reuben; Detweiler, Jacob; Diehl, John; Duffy, Neil; Effrig, Anthony; Fluck, Reuben; Fluck, Sylvester; Lacey, Edwin.

Look for more biographies to be added as this is an ongoing project.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Steinmetz Genealogy

"Phillip Steinmetz was born in the province of Schwabruken, Rhein Baiern, Prussia, southwest of Antwerp, Belgium. He was by profession a lieutenant of Hussars, in the army of the empire, belonging to the illustrious family, of whom we have the genealogy of six generations of military men, of whom the late General Steinmetz, of the Prussian army, was one."

Read this free multigenerational genealogy of the Steinmetz family which follows the many branches of the family from their arrival in Pennsylvania on the eve of the American revolution until 1907, the date of publication.