Saturday Night Fun - Unusual Ancestor's Name

For this Saturday Night Fun Randy has challenged other genealogy bloggers to post the weirdest name of one of their ancestors. I'll try to play along as best as I can.

At the moment, I cannot think of any ancestors with strange surnames, but I can think of a couple of unusual first names for a couple of my female ancestors. The two unusual first names that I can think of off the top of my head are Tryphena and Euphrosyne. The ancestor named Tryphena was from the U. K., and the ancestor with the name Euphrosyne was from Germany. Both names are quite unusual to me, and I've never heard of these names before discovering these ancestors. Does anyone else have female ancestors with either of these two first names? Thanks!

13th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 13th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on Irish vacations, and you can read more about it here. The topic for the 15th edition will be on the 2nd summer reading challenge, and you can read more about it here. Enjoy!

12th Edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture Posted!

The 12th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture has been posted! You can read it here. The topic for the next edition will be on "Irish names," and you can read more information about it here. Enjoy!

Celebrate Your Name Week - Day One

I just learned about the Celebrate Your Name Week from Amanda and Sheri's posts, and I thought I would play along. As everyone knows, my name is Jessica, and as a little girl, my parents told me that my name meant wealth. When I got older, I noticed in a store, a card with the meaning of my name. According to that card, Jessica came from Hebrew and means wealthy.
According to Behind the Name, Jessica as a name, "first used in this form by Shakespeare in his play 'The Merchant of Venice' (1596), where it belongs to the daughter of Shylock. Shakespeare probably based it on the biblical name ISCAH which would have been spelled Jesca in his time. It was not commonly used as a given name until the middle of the 20th century." Meaning of Names also says the same, but adds a little more information: "In Hebrew, the name Jessica means- Rich. God beholds. The daughter of Shylock in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice.. Other origins for the name Jessica include - Hebrew, Israeli.The name Jessica is most often used as a girl name or female name. Hebrew Meaning - Rich. God beholds. The daughter of Shylock in Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. Origin - Hebrew." So, as you can see, the information that I had learned prior to looking on those websites was fairly close and accurate.

My parents named me Jessica because they liked the name, so I wasn't named after a relative. In addition, my middle name is unique in my family since none of my other relatives have that name. So, that's a little information on the name, Jessica.

11th Edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy Posted!

The eleventh edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy has been posted! You can read it here. Thank you Steve for hosting this edition!

As for a topic and dates for the October edition, I do not have anything at the moment. If anyone is interested in hosting the October edition please contact me at: jess_history at yahoo dot com. I am allowing whoever hosts the editions to choose the topic for the carnival and dates for the submission deadline and posting of the carnival.

My German Ancestors: Naming Patterns and Odd Names ...

Even though I know I have German ancestors, I still have several that I did not know much about when it comes to parents and siblings. With some ancestors, I can make a guess as to naming patterns, but with others I cannot.

One thing that I have noticed with some of my German ancestors is that they had a middle name or more than one given name. I forget now where I read this, but this was supposedly typical of German immigrants to the United States and possibly in Germany. (My memory is failing me on this one.) And then, on top of that, they might either go by one of those names in other documents. Now, I realize this does not sound so bad, but on top of this, I discovered that I had ancestors who had three or more given names. And to make matters worse, one of those ancestors apparently was known by either one or two of his given names. (At least that is how it appears to me at the moment.) Of course, with this ancestor, he apparently stuck with using the last two of his given names, but his children apparently did not follow that custom. It appears that they just chose to go by their first given name. Again, this is only what I have noticed for the German ancestors that I have done some research on. It could be that this one family is an oddity, but I guess I should not rely too much on generalizations.

As for names, many of my German ancestors and their siblings appear to have names that were commonly used in Germany. Of course, some of those names I might find odd, but then, that is probably because I live in American culture and not German culture. And then, there are my German ancestors who came from the Russian Empire, of whom I cannot make too many generalizations only because I know more about their lives and families in the United States. As for odd given names of my German ancestors, I think I'll start with my Russian-German ancestors.

As you may remember, I wrote about Anton and Caroline, my German ancestors from the Russian Empire. Anton and Caroline, along with Anton's siblings that came to the U. S., had several children. Among the names that they chose in common with Anton's siblings' children were August, Emma, Anna, Bertha, John, and Arthur. Anton was the only one among his brothers that did not name a son after him (as far as I know). Out of the above names mentioned, the ones I find unusual are August, Anton and Arthur. August and Anton only seem unusual to me because I live in an area where those names are uncommon. I realize Arthur is not unusual name, but since this family came from the Russian Empire, it is not a name that I would expect people from that area to give to their child. (Of course, I should state that the children given this name were born in the United States, so this might be a case of the families wanting or trying to assimilate into the American culture.)

As for my other German ancestors, most of the names given to their children are names that I would expect to find in a German culture. Of course, I have not yet researched all of my German ancestors, so this situation could easily change.

Carnival Submission Deadlines Reminder ...

I just want to remind everyone of some Carnival submission deadlines that are coming up in the next few days. Three carnivals have submission deadlines within the next few days, and those carnivals are:

• Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy - The topic is on unusual given names, and articles are due by September 21. You can submit your article here.
• Canadian Genealogy Carnival - The topic is on my ancestor was Canadian, and the articles are due by September 21. You can submit your article here.
• Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture - The topic is on what you will do to either find out more about your Irish ancestors or if you have learned something about Ireland or Irish culture. Articles are due by September 22, and you can submit your articles here.

The deadlines for these carnivals are all due next week, in just a few days.

The Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy: Still Searching For A Host And A Reminder

I just want to remind everyone that I am still looking for a host for the October edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy. I have hosts for September and November's editions, but I don't have anyone for October. I am allowing the hosts to choose the topic for the edition they are hosting, and the deadlines for submissions and posting of the edition. If anyone is still interested, please contact me at jess_history at yahoo dot com. Thanks.

Also, I want to remind everyone that submissions for September's edition are due by September 21. The topic for this upcoming edition is on unusual given names. The edition will be hosted by Stephen Danko, and will be posted on his blog on September 24.

What's My Accent?

I just happened to look at Thomas MacEntee's post on his accent, and I thought I would take the quiz myself. So, here are my results:

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

All I can say is that the quiz results did not surprise me as I have lived in Michigan all of my life; however, I had been thinking about regional accents since I read Terry Snyder's post on regional words and accents.

Why? Well, as I have done census searches of my ancestors and their siblings over the past four or so years, I have come across a few unusual spellings of my surname that I would not have thought of if I had not done a first-name only search in the censuses. A case in point would be the 1880 Census. When I first searched for my ancestors in the 1880 U. S. Census, I could not find the family (except for the youngest child), although I had a fairly good idea of where they were living. To be honest, I had expected from day one of doing research that I would have to look for variations in the spelling of my last name. I am used to it as my last name is misspelled by other people from time to time. It is not unusual for me to find my ancestor's surname spelled as Oswald instead of Oswalt as these surnames are virtually pronounced the same. So, how was their surname misspelled? It was written as Olswath. Yes, even in the image. The census had not been mis-transcribed. Even more unusual about the spelling was that the family was not together; the family was split up and everyone was living in separate households. Yet, the spelling of the surname was almost consistent for the whole family. Since the surname was consistently misspelled, I have a feeling that either my ancestor had an accent or the census taker had an accent. At the moment I am leaning towards the possibility that my ancestor had the accent, but then, I can't say for sure. Either way, accents do influence how one might find an ancestor's name spelled in a record. I don't know how many beginning genealogists keep this in mind when they search for their ancestors, but it is a very good idea for beginners to keep this in mind.

Baby Names ...

Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings has challenged other genealogy bloggers to a baby names meme. Specifically he asked, "If you had a chance to name your children again, what names would you choose to honor your ancestors?" Well, I can't write from the vantage of renaming children as I have never had children, but I guess I could do it from the vantage point of, if I might ever have children.

So, if had to choose possible names, these would be my favorite names from the list of my ancestors and their siblings:

• Benjamin - (I have to be careful with one, as I've named my dog, Ben. I don't want my child to feel as though he was named after my dog, but I really do like the name.)
• John - (A common name, I realize, but it is the name of a few of my ancestors and their brothers.)
• William
• Samuel
• Henry
• Adam
• Peter
• Anna
• Emma

Okay, I realize I didn't list as many names for girls. To be honest, I haven't really thought about naming children as I am young. I'm not sure if I would name any of my children after any of my ancestors. The only name that I really like from the list is Benjamin; the other names are just okay, as they are common. I'm not sure what I would name my children. Maybe, I should come up with a list of names I would not give to my children. How about a meme spin-off of this meme? Do you have a list of names that you would never give your children?

Have You Looked At These Sites?

I was just wondering if anyone had noticed these two websites:

• Behind the Name - the Etymology and History of First Names
• Behind the Name - the Etymology and History of Surnames

Obviously, from the titles of the websites these websites deal with the meaning of first names and surnames. Both sites appear to be very informative. My only problem is that most of the surnames of my ancestors did not show up when I typed them. I don't know when the websites are updated, so it could be very possible that the owner is still updating the surname database. So, what do you think about these two websites?

My Grandparent's Names

Earlier today, Randy Seaver posted about the names he gave his grandparents and then challenged other genealogy bloggers to post about the names they gave their grandparents.

So, what names do I give to my grandparents? I call my grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa. If I happen to be talking to a family member about one of my grandparents, I might specify with the surname of my grandparent. For example, I would say, "Grandma [Surname]." I can't say for sure, but I think it was the same way for my parents as well. In referring to my grandparents, my parents call them "Mom and Dad," even if they are not their parents, but their in-laws. (As far as I know, I don't believe my parents' calling each other's parents, "Mom and Dad," has ever caused problems, although I did have a high school teacher who got upset that his married daughter called her father-in-law, "Dad.")

Speaking of parents, I have only called my parents either, "Mom and Dad," or, "Mommy and Daddy" when I was younger. I have never been allowed to call my parents by their first names, although I understand that there are some parents who do allow their children to call them by their first names. If I ever have children, I don't believe I would allow them to call me by my first name. I guess I'm just too traditional to allow that to happen.