Family Tree Frustration

[margecat]

I have spent the past year or so working on just my Mom's side.

I've been focusing on one female ancestor, whose first name we don't know. She has to be the daughter of either my 3rd or 4th great grandfather's son. I've been spending 1-3 hours per day, and many of my lunch hours just on her. Just wasted yet another lunch hour, going around in circles. Why did my ancestors keep naming their sons William? Why did the Williams keep marrying the Hannahs or the Sarahs? LOL! And, it's a somewhat common surname, in the same area (Birmingham, England). Or, were they the Northern Scotts?

I just wish people would have thought of outlandish first names for their kids. Note to modern parents-to-be: give your kids weird first names, so your descendants won't want to dig up your body and do awful things to it.

 

[aliceneko]

Haha, my family have a similar problem. It was a tradition to name boys Herbert William or William Herbert (most confusingly, normally Herbert Williams had sons named William Herbert and vice versa) and the girls were either Sarah or Elizabeth on the Irish side of my family. The most interesting it gets on both sides is Cornelius.

The English side of my family was a bit more intuitive and they didn't really have as many traditional names that the Irish side did.

 

[Kieka]

LOL!

I am the only person in America with my first middle last name combination. I have the exact opposite problem of I am too easy to find in the modern day.

We have the maternal family line on my Mom's side through 1400 and my Dad's Mom's paternal line to about 1600. Nothing really branching off the main line though and both sides came to America before the 1750's. On both sides, my family has a history of being unique in naming. Very few biblical names, more along the line of Eureka, Y, LZ and OE as some of the more notable ones. Yes, single and two letter names. Not even joking. My Dad actually met Y before she died and she had a great sense of humor over all the moments that name caused her. Most of the siblings went by nicknames, like LZ was Lindsay. But she went by Y most of the time, including the notable time she had a run in with the cops and was arrested for being snippity with them by answering "What is your name?".

 

[Margret]

G

stands for Gnu, whose weapons of Defence
Are long, sharp, curling Horns, and Common-sense.
To these he adds a Name so short and strong,

That even Hardy Boers pronounce it wrong.
How often on a bright Autumnal day
The Pious people of Pretoria say,
"Come, let us hunt the——" Then no more is heard
But Sounds of Strong Men struggling with a word.
Meanwhile, the distant Gnu with grateful eyes
Observes his opportunity, and flies.


Moral.
Child, if you have a rummy kind of name,
Remember to be thankful for the same.
_______________________________

From: A Moral Alphabet, by Hilaire Belloc