Geneology and names..

[Deja Vous]

I did a bit of research in the past about my family. We have this odd habit of naming kids the same name when they passed away. As I traced it back it comes from my European roots.

 

The tradition is if the first child is named say Robert and he passed due to the Flu or Small pox.. They name the next son Robert too. So you may have several kids names the same name in my family with one being the child who beat the odds.

 

It was common in England, and common here too. Based on that family tradition my father has 2 brothers with his name who did not survive past childbirth. And his brother had one.

 

And I have two sisters who did not make it. .. The nice part was at one time you could be older if you wished to be, but never younger if you think about it.. lol..

 

It got my father into school at the age of 4, cuz he was ready as far as my grandmother was concerned... lol..

 

SS was not used much at birth until 1986. When I was born you got to pick the age you wanted to be.. lol.. So you could take over your older deceased siblings birthdate and go to school earlier. This was typical in my family.. And I bet in the past it was typical in a lot of families. Now days, it would be much harder.. Another great tradition lost.. lol.. You know if you are ready for school at age 4, why not go as your older sibling.. lol.. I guess my family messed up a lot of country records.. lol.

 

I think being born at home instead of the hospital made difference in our past.

[Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172]

Kinda like Darly, my bother Daryl and my other brother Daryl?

 

Wasn't it Ma and Pa Kettle that numbered their children?

[Deja Vous]

Kinda like Darly, my bother Daryl and my other brother Daryl?

 

Wasn't it Ma and Pa Kettle that numbered their children?

 

 

Lol. but it is so common to be naming your oldest son the same name as dear ole dad.. lol. Once dear ole dad is gone the kids is no longer a JR. It makes if very hard to do reserach.

 

But, when I was doing it I found out that I was one of a few, but what date did my folks report was the problem They wanted their children to be educated and starting them sooner was so common. So was I behind door number 1 or 2 or 3.. lol.. I have found out a lot of people are younger than they thought once they researched a bit.. lol.. pretty cool.. but I think it was a lot more common before our era. And just think those who are lucky enough to be in that situation get to collect SS much earlier.. lol. and retire younger.. lol.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Wasn't that how a lot of boys got into the service in WW II? Go to a nearby town where no one knew them and register for the draft just saying they were 18 and had no birth certificate. Then once they had a draft card, enlistment was easy.

 

My uncle John lied about his age to get into the Navy. Navy said he was too small so he joined the Merchant Marine. A year later that ship's cook had fattened him up a bit and he did join the Navy. He was assigned to BB55, the North Carolina, just before the war ended. He was a young man when he retired as a Master Chief with 29 yrs 9 months service.

[Rye Miles #13621]

On my father's side of the family the first born son was named after his grandfather. I am named after my grandfather and my father was named after is gramps my first son is named after his grampa,etc. It goes back as far as we can get, my great, great grandfather in Italy. It either started with Severio and then Antonio or vica versa. Birth records in Italy are scarce and tracing my family tree is a bit^&.

[Noz]

Try tracing John and Mary Sullivan that immigrated to the US during the Irish potato famine. No records, no nothing. Load as many on a boat as it will hold and head west.

[The Shoer 27979]

For many years before my Dad died he traced our roots and put it in book form for us kids. He traced it all the way back to Dusseldorf Germany 1722. I don't know why he stop there,I don't know if it was as far as he wanted to go , or as far as he could go. Started looking at it the other day when out of the blue a cousin of mine that I had not talk to for 35 years called.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

My cousin traced us back to the Isle of Shoals in NH in 1789 and to Cornwall, England in 1832. On the English side there was always a John Perry. John's son John would have a son John, etc. John's second and third sons would have different names but would name their first sons after themselves and then still have a son named John.

[Grizzly Dave]

My family only has one per name per generation, I am a 4th and my son is a 5th.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

My family only has one per name per generation, I am a 4th and my son is a 5th.

 

Nobody had two sons?

[Grizzly Dave]

Some did, but they were not named the same extending the suffix. As far as I know, the first born male child got the father's name, and the second got some other name.

[Hoot Hamilton]

Some of the naming patterns that came from Europe were continued for several generations.

For instance, the first son was named for the father's father, second son for the fathers eldest brother and so on. The first daughter for the mothers mother, second daughter for the mothers eldest sister and so on. My sis and I found this when we researched our family several years ago. She knows lots more than me about the variations, but it always has been fairly structured in our clan(s).

 

hOOt

[Grizzly Dave]

On my mothers side of the family, daughters were given their mother's name as their middle name.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

There was a four name tradition in British families. My adopted father went by the name of Ernest but his name was Horace Ernest Akeson Fisher. Horace was the name his father went by, Akeson was his mother's maiden name. I have seen a lot of people named like that.

[Foul Mouth Frank Shutz]

For many years before my Dad died he traced our roots and put it in book form for us kids. He traced it all the way back to Dusseldorf Germany 1722. I don't know why he stop there,I don't know if it was as far as he wanted to go , or as far as he could go. Started looking at it the other day when out of the blue a cousin of mine that I had not talk to for 35 years called.

Generally speaking, once you've traced your family to a specific locality in Europe prior to the 18th century you're going to be related to pretty much everyone around. A lack of last names gets to be a problem any earlier than that. Supposing there are two blacksmiths in the village, which "John Smith" are you related to? Both, most likely.

[Noz]

The Swedes had a real complex system of naming their children. The easiest portion of it was that the sons used their father's first name as their last name adding "son" to the end of it. James Johnson's son John would be John Jamesson. His daughter Alice would be Alice Jamesdotter.

 

To make this really tough, Sweden became involved in a War in the early 1800s. When it became obvious that there were simply too many John Johnsons and Olaf Olafsons in the army, the men were given the option of selecting a name for Army use only. Much as we SASS members select an alias. They named themselves after heros, mountains, flowers etc.

Now the former John Johnson is John Sunflower or something similar.

After the war some of these Swedes kept and used the Army name and some reverted to the old name. They also began going to the European style of naming in that they adopted their fathers last name as their own.

 

Now try to trace a bloodline through that!!

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

Guess I got lucky, my Scots ancestors hit these shores mid 1600's and didn't rename children. Great grandpa was a T.James, Grandpa was a Eugene, Dad was a Willard. Large family's stopped with Dad's generation, most of them had only one or two kids. My Dad had 7 siblings, GG's family had 9 or so just off the top of my head, including a William Harvey and Sylvester Fair. GG was Thadeous James.......Buck

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

My dad was Thomas A. I am Thomas R., but I was thirteen before I found my name wasn't Hey You.

 

In our family reunions anyone calling out William, Bill, or Tom would get half the males answering all at once.

 

All the rest were Homer, Gomer, Bud, Squinty, Wart, Bubba, or some such.

[The Shoer 27979]

Generally speaking, once you've traced your family to a specific locality in Europe prior to the 18th century you're going to be related to pretty much everyone around. A lack of last names gets to be a problem any earlier than that. Supposing there are two blacksmiths in the village, which "John Smith" are you related to? Both, most likely.

I agree with you to a point and I know Europeans stayed in the same place for Many Many generation. With my Dads research, it also has Cologne, Nurenburg for the next generation, then the generation after that is Munchen And Fleshburg. I know what your saying thought and if I had not been paging thought the book looking I would not have known any of this.

 

As for the names I don't see any names repeated from generation to generation like your talking about

[Deja Vous]

I did notice sons were named after fathers and often the middle name was a grandfathers too. But I found it so odd that their would be two Cyphus boys on a marker on each side of their mother, and one child still alive. I found it in 3 cases out side of my own experience. Other traditions were giving all the family wealth to the oldest child. I guess it happened a lot in England or Cornwall at least. Perhaps the oldest was the protecter of the other children was the reason, I am not sure. But it gets messy when a baby dies and you name the next one the same name to me. I don't think I could do it.

[Doc Windshadow]

The Swedes had a real complex system of naming their children. The easiest portion of it was that the sons used their father's first name as their last name adding "son" to the end of it. James Johnson's son John would be John Jamesson. His daughter Alice would be Alice Jamesdotter.

 

this is the system still used in Iceland but there are comprehensive church records there that go back into the middle ages which help out those needing to search there.

 

a lot of fun can be had on ancestor.com for those interested in finding out how many horse thieves and cattle rustlers were hung on the branches of their family tree