Family Tree

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

Lately, I've been going on Ancestry.com to research my family tree. I have found out a lot of new people on my father's side, but not so much on my mother's side. So, I thought I would share some of the more...unusual names I found. These are all from the mid 1800's to the early 1900's. All of them are on my father's side and almost all of them males. Well, there are two on my mother's side - her and her father. So, let's start with the women.

Merry - my mother, who it seems, was named after her mother's sister.
Alzada
Freelove
Christina - that's not so odd unless you pronounce it chris-TINE-uh

Now the men:
Purl - My mother's father, who had a twin Earl.
Marenus
Squire
Rensssealear
Harwood
Hammel
Everts
Newell
Novatus
Theron - this is not a blood relative. He was my aunt's husband.

Comments

[piperwest12.livejournal.com]

Where are your parents' families from?

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

My father's family is mostly Scottish on his father's side. We've traced them back to when they came over from Scotland or from Scotland through England in the 1800's. His mother's side is mostly English, but I don't know very much about that side. His mother died when he was six.

My mother's family is part Danish, part Norwegian, part French on her mother's side and part Welsh and part English on her father's side.

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

Ok. I jokingly hate you. LoL. I just spent the past 4 hours on ancestry.com and omg i found sooooo much! Thanks. Ill post my madness too.

[opalgirl28.livejournal.com]

I love stuff like this--there are always some bizarre names in there, aren't there? My family does fairly well at naming girls, but not so much with boys.

One of my great-greatmothers was mostly English in descent, and she and her sisters had mostly "classic" sounding English girl's names. Two of her younger brothers? Were named Rockwell and Royal (thankfully, the family called them "Rock" and "Roy"). Great-grandma's grandmother was Augusta

My late grandfather on that ^ side of the family had two sets of twin cousins that I remember: Laurence ("Laurie") and Clarence ("Clary") and Garth and Gary.

On the other side of the family tree, I'm Scottish. My great-grandfather was George Ervin (for some reason, he used his middle name exclusively. I had to pull up his and great-grandma's marriage papers to find out what his first initial actually stood for), and his father was James Eldridge. Great-Great-Great-Granddad's first name was Lorenzo.

My great-uncles--George Ervin's sons--are/were: James Eldridge (goes exclusively by Eldridge), Wilmot Rodger, and Delbert Dalton (went by Dalton).

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

LOL! I found so much, too. I just wish I could find more on my mother's side.

I have a question - Do you have a paid account with Ancestry? Right now I'm on a 30 day free trial, but it runs out on Saturday. It's kind of hard to figure out from the website about billing. Will they bill me monthly or for the whole year at once? I'd love to keep my account, but I can't afford to pay the whole amount at once. Thanks.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

It looks like most of the men preferred their middle names. I had an uncle named Clarence, but he was always called Jim. It was a childhood nickname.

My mother's name was Merry Ethel Grundy, When she got married, she legally became Merry Grundy Cranston. But somewhere along the line, she started using Merry Lou and the car registration and insurance were in her name with Lou as her middle name. She never did tell me where that came from.

[mommy.livejournal.com]

Purl & Earl? wow. i knew a Sherman & Therman set of twins but that takes the cake!

[redfield79.livejournal.com]

It's pretty awesome! My grandmother on my dads side can trace our entire family to about a few years after Columbus set food which is pretty wild. They're all crazy OCD people who save and document everything! hahaha. BUT fun to find stuff like my grandfathers Draft Card and their marriage listed in old documents. :)

OKAY. So weird? I have a trial as well but it's a 14 day trial! :( From what I read there is a 6month membership fee and a monthly membership fee.

I guess http://www.ancestry.com/cs/offers/freetrial?o_iid=48816&o_lid=48816&o_sch=Web+Property shift V means POST comment now. LOL. Anywho...I probably won't keep paying. :( Buying a house/pregnant. BUT I REALLY WANT TO! It's so cool! :)

[serenebean.livejournal.com]

My local library has a membership that anyone can use for free while at the library. Maybe check into that, so you don't have to pay! :)

[imamaryanne.livejournal.com]

It's hard to get past Freelove. That's....wow.

Speaking of Christina pronounced Chirst-TINE-a, My great grandmother was Sophia pronounced So-FIE-a.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I think I had a Freelove in my female ancestry as well, if I remember correctly.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I tried to do the monthly account last night since it said it would be $29.99/month, but at the end, the site said it was charging me for the whole 6 months - $160+. Fortunately I had used Pay Pal and I called them and cancelled it immediately. I'm going to call Ancestry today and see what's up with that.

I think I was mistaken and had just a two week trial, too. I've really gotten back into the genealogy stuff now and I don't want to stop, either. I hope I can work things out with Ancestry.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

I know! It's hilarious. I'm just sorry I never got to meet Grandpa Purl. He died six months before I was born. :/

Sherman and Therman is pretty bad. I'm not fond of rhyming names for twins anyway and bad rhyming names are even worse.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

From the 1800's, too. If it had been the 1960' or 70's, I could understand it a bit better.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

It's such an...interesting and unusual name. It seems it was more popular than I figured it would be, unless we're related. ;)

[mommy.livejournal.com]

agreed! i think their sister had a name that went with them, too, i just can't remember it.

[piperwest12.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a cool mix!

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

I had the free trial as well. When I found out that they do, in fact, bill you all at once, I decided to cancel right before my trial ended.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was ~really~ pissed off about that because they NEVER said that until AFTER I completed the transaction. Before that, it said I would pay $30/month, which was ok. But then realizing I was being billed for $170+ all at once, I felt they were scamming me. :/

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

I love seeing some of the names I've found in my family tree.

Luella
Redmond or Redman Lake (was written either way, apparently)
America (f)
Elgin Wayne
Orville
Meriel or Merrill (also spelled various ways on censuses)
Honora "Nora"
Weronica
Frederika "Rike"
Jackson

Hubby's found some interesting ones, too.

Alys (f)
Sussanna
Johan
Marija
Catharina
Alvah (m)

But the winner goes to my stepmother, who inherited the family Bible and discovered that she had a female ancestor named Hepzibeth! Apparently it's a variant of Hepzibah...

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

It is fun and interesting finding all the odd and different (to us) names in our family trees. I love Hepzibeth :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

I had a family member named Purl! My mom would always talk about "aunt Lou and uncle Purl." I believe it was spelled that way too.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

Are you Welsh on that side of the family? My grandfather was mostly Welsh, with a little English, so I always wondered if Purl was a Welsh name.

[http://users.livejournal.com/___heyvanity/]

Well he could have been (one of those married into the family situation, perhaps?). Most of my family (on that side) is Irish.

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

I called Ancestry.com today and the Customer Service guy told me that you can absolutely get a plan where you pay monthly. There are two - one where you can only access their U.S. records and one where you can access their world-wide records. The first is $22.99 and the second is $29.99,

According to their records, I've paid them $160+ and have a six-month membership. It's working again, but nothing has been taken out of my bank account by Pay Pal and I have the e-mails from Pay Pal saying they won't pay Ancestry.com. We ended up deciding to let it wait until Monday and see what happens with the payment. Until then, I'm going to use my account. :D

[jeweledvixen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he could be an in-law. It's interesting to find another Purl. I didn't figure he was the only one, but I never expected to run into anyone else who had a relative named Purl. :)