P for Peculiar People.
Peculiar People was a hard GenealogyPhotoADay prompt. I had no photos with people being peculiar, silly or having fun that I was happy to share. Plus I typically ask permission before publishing online pictures of people online. I think I am becoming old fashioned.
So I shared how one of my Dawson families elected to show their peculiarity with some unusual names. There are many of DAWSON’s in my family tree. With the naming practice of calling sons and daughters after relatives and ancestors there are a number with very similar names. When researching frequently you have to use dates of birth or parents or siblings names in the same document to make sure you are updating the correct person with new data.
There is an exception for one DAWSON family. The children of Charles Dawson (DOB 1832) and Emma GROUT (DOB 1835). While they did repeat common names they used both a first and middle name and some of these are unusual. This makes identifying them in records so much easier. Frith, Collis, Shuttlewood, Freeborn, Tarbet, Grout bring some.
You can read more about this Dawson Family, their names and some vital details in a post from last years #atozchallenge D – DAWSON
View this #GenealogyPhotoADay along with others on Instagram.
The 2017 A to Z Blogging Challenge is based on my genealogy posts for #GenealogyPhotoADay (some days, not everyday) on Instagram. I will be using past daily prompts starting with the appropriate letter. Here’s the collection of 2017 A to Z posts that have been posted so far.
Only Q to Z to finish this A to Z Challenge. What am I going to do for letters like X & Z that have not been a #GenealogyPhotoADay prompt? Any suggestions?
The use of common names gets kinda confusing. A few years ago I started digging into my family heritage and that’s when I discovered this practice. I had to pay close attention to the birthdates to keep family members in chronological order. I stopped my research when DH got laid off (he’s now employed) in 2015 but I’d like to resume my hunt. Maybe I’ll pick it up again in a few months. Interesting post.
Cathy, You can pick it up and put it down again lots of times. That’s why it’s a great hobby as it can fit in with your busy life.
I have to watch dates of birth too with some people. Fran
Hello, fellow A-to-Zer! Interesting names– I like Shuttlewood especially!
Melanie Atherton Allen
http://www.athertonsmagicvapour.com
Yes I like Shuttlewood too. Freeborn is my favourite.
No strange names plenty of peculiar people tho.
A Piece of Uganda
We need variety to make this place interesting!
You made me think of my Aunt Hazel, who only was silly for photos. I have one of her in a wild hat, drinking punch, and looking like Red Skelton. Thanks for the memory!
Wish I had some of these types of photos. My family might have some however I never got to see them. Thanks for the music memories too over on your blog.
Those are interesting, for sure. 🙂 My husband is Italian and it’s traditional to name the eldest sons and daughters after the paternal grandparents. The second in line are named after the maternal ones. As a result, you have so many cousins all with the same first names. which often leads to confusion.
P.S. It’s difficult to share your posts without sharing buttons. (I have a browser app that does it.) More people would love to read your content, I’m sure. 🙂
Debbie, Yes I do need some sharing buttons. I changed my theme ages ago and lost some of the features showing. I probably has the facilities within all the plugins I have but never seem to get around to sorting it out. Thanks for the timely reminder. Appreciate this help. Fran
This happens with Scottish families too so does not help family history research when you have so many with the same first names. Cousins born about the same time are hard to sort out.
My parents passed on a Scottish tradition whereby the first born daughter got the mother’s maiden name as her middle name. So I was blessed with the middle name of Millar. (Constant arguments with teachers over the spelling!)
The first born son was given father’s mother’s maiden name. So my poor brother was saddled with the middle name of McKinnell! Alan McKinnell Geddes. He had his middle name changed by deed-poll the day he turned 16, so he’s now Alan David Geddes! (Our father was David.)
I have a pile of Scottish males with Scott as a second name. When I was young Mum said she liked Dads middle name so used it for my brother. Turned out I discovered from my family research it is from my 3 times great grand mother, Sarah Scott. Good on your brother for being so decisive.
I don’t have any peculiar names in my family trees either. The names are very with the times that they lived in and also the region.
We do have quite a few Dukes and Princesses though and a King.
I don’t have any royalty that I have found yet!
I did the whole genealogy thing a few years ago. I was sure I’d be able to follow one of my great-grandparents back easily. Hmph, come to find out Despreaux is as common as Jones in France and Canada. Plus, I can’t read French, so that added to the difficulty. I made some headway, but nowhere near what I’d hoped!
The Passage
Google translate is good for foreign languages. Use it to understand column headings for church and other records. It helps.
Any Xaviers or Ezekiels in your family names? Of course you could always do zero- nothing more to say on the subject. ?
No exciting names. Except for some French ones most are good Scottish and English ones.
Unusual middle names are often a gift for identifying family and for identifying possible forebears.
I have Dawson’s too but not with those middle names 🙂
Yes peculiar middle names art a bonus. Great hints for female maiden names. The rest of my Dawson’s are mainly Charles, Henry, Thomas and the popular Edward. Or combinations of these if they have 2 first names.
Middle names, eh? I love my middle name (Atherton) and use it whenever I can. It is my father’s middle name, too, and it does go back farther than that, but I am a bit foggy on my own genealogy, so I am not very clear on what side of his family it comes from. If I ever get married, I plan to keep Atherton, though I’d be willing to ditch Allen, I think. Of course, this would make things tricky for genealogists of the future, but I can’t help their problems. Besides, genealogists of the future will have The Internet to help them, and may, with a sufficiently rigorous search, even come across this very comment (if it is still extant then, possibly through the magic of The Wayback Machine).
Have you ever thought of how it will be to be a genealogist in, say, two hundred years? Or of ways you can leave a digital legacy to benefit these future researchers?
Yes Melanie I have thought about saving my digital story in the future. Here in Australian the national library archives my blog once a year. Many bloggers get archived. It is great that they have understood online needs to be archived like they archive books and other records. They keep the old ones and hey have saved too so there is a snapshot of old designs too.