Tag Archives: surnames

The 1930 US Census shows that Annie and her first husband changed their names to Wanda and Louis Pothier. This was a common practice among immigrants to America. Their ancestral […]

Richard Tickle honored his grandmother and great-grandmother by passing on their maiden names. Ellen’s middle name was Eccles and Margaret’s middle name was Howard.  This was an English naming tradition. […]

William and Joseph Addison were born in 1904 and 1905 in Preston, Lancashire, England. Where did they go? Only a descendant of this family can answer that question. Joseph Addison […]

Elizabeth Lund was not the motherly type. She gave birth to five illegitimate children. Two died in infancy, one may have been adopted out, and the oldest two children were […]

Ann Williams lived at 27 Eccles Street in Liverpool from 1869 to 1874. Mark Kilshaw lived at this address from 1875 to 1877. Could Ann be Mark’s mother? I plan […]

Martha was christened with the middle name Franduella. This given name may have originated in Eastern Europe. Which one of Martha’s ancestors carried this name? That is the unanswered question. […]

Three of George and Mary’s children did not survive to reach adulthood. George’s three siblings also died young. Diseases such as cholera, smallpox, typhus, and scarlet fever were prevalent before […]

John and Catherine decided to send the children two at a time to America. They were probably afraid the ship might sink and kill the entire family as it made […]

In 1922, Joseph Gillibrand married a woman named Ellen Hodgkinson. She was 35 years old when they married. Was this her maiden name or her married name? I have ordered […]

When Nancy was 18 years old, she was sent to the Blackburn Union Workhouse. She was deemed to be insane and was an inmate of their lunacy ward until her […]