When I saw the title of this Vita Brevis blog post--
Naming patterns by Zachary Garceau,
it brought to mind the naming patterns Irish, Scottish and Scots-Irish parents used for their descendants in my family lines. Yours, too? It is a tradition that sometimes makes it difficult to determine which Samuel McCullough belongs to the record I found, or if he is even one of the Samuel McCulloughs in my tree.
However, this informative article explains how our ancestors named their new settlements as they moved around from state to state. Maybe because they weren't creative, or because they wanted to pay homage to the place they just left, or they wanted to make a better "Albany" than the one they left behind.
It's not that I don't know there are towns/cities with the same names. I had family who lived in Nashville, Illinois. Now I'm supposing did this little town have early settlers who hailed from Nashville, Tennessee?
It's just that I have never thought of checking to see if this tradition would help follow someone around as the country grew.
Maybe some of you have a brick wall that needs a new strategy. Give this one a try.
Vita Brevis is a blog of the New England Historic Genealogical Society from AmericanAncestors.org.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for commenting.