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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Nick Carver on Saturday 26 August 06 18:56 BST (UK)
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I found a branch of my tree where the children all had Crackles as their middle name. Not being one to miss a clue, I decided that this must be something to do with the maternal line. However, as I failed to uncover anybody named Crackles, I rather let it slip. Recently though, I thought I would trace the antecedants of my 3xg aunt. Her name Nichols was not very exciting and rather too common for comfort and this line had been ignored to date because there were no children of the marriage. Imagine my delight to find that the mother was a Crackles. Double delight, because it confirmed I had the right person and it also made sense of the middle name.
Next step, a bit of random googling, which produced a contact also researching Crackles and an e-mail back with a link to a tree going back to 1580. Not overly exciting because of the tenuous links I have with that family, but a good result nonetheless. Definitely something to share however.
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Great when it all falls together isn't it?
Hubby's Great Grandfather's siblings were easy to find and even easier to find their Grandparents.
Great Great Grandfather was William Davidson and his wife was Elizabeth Rankin. Their sons were:
JOHN DAVIDSON DAVIDSON
GEORGE RANKIN DAVIDSON
WILLIAM DAVIDSON
How easy is that to find the parents of Elizabeth and William? ;D
Carol
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It's a good feeling, isn't it. The little bit of information which doesn't seem significant but which turns out to be important. One of the pleasures of family history. Middle names can often be great clues.
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Middle names can often be great clues.
And a great way to narrow down your relative. I am currently looking for a George Hayes and a Michael Hayes with no nickname that I know of. Good luck. Interestingly, four children in that family and 2 had middle names and 2 did not. Anyone have any ideas why that is?
Kath
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maternal maiden name used as middle names have been very useful to me, especially with a surname Ellis.
Nick, I'm sure there was someone on the 'East Yorkshire' board looking for Crackles a while back, or maybe that's who you've found
Bee :)
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Bee, thanks for the tip, will follow up
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I sometimes wonder about families using maiden names as middle names. I too have a family that was prolific in using middle names from maiden names. WIth 11 children in the 1770's and almost all have surnames as middle names. WHere would these all come from? I think they must have started making them up towards the end. Thomas Sutton Hancock, ELizbaeth Swinn Hancock, Joseph Scales Hancock, William Green Hancock etc... ;D
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and occasionally the middle name gives you an idea of who the father might have been if the child is illegitimate
Bee :)
ps. should it be 'who the father' or 'whom the father' I always get them mixed up :-\
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Just recently I found a family that I had been looking for in Scotland, they had 8 children and each child was given the surname of their maternal and paternal grandmothers. Wish they were all like that. ;D
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I have 3 siblings [ggggrandfather's siblings] who had the middle names of Hollowell,[eldest son] and then Aspley for the next son and daughter and then the last 2 have no middle names.
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I was looking at a family where some of the children's middle names were the surnames of married sisters of the mother.
My guess was that these people may have been god parents and would have become the guardians in the event that it was necessary.
Beth
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Yes a while back, I was looking for parents of George Cocks.
There was also an inresolved issue of why so many members of the family had Bond as a middle name. Then I found a marriage of George Bowker Cock (no 's') to Mary Bond. I didn't believe it until Ancestry released another Census year and George called himself George Bowker Cocks on the Census.
And he , along with brothers added the 's' to the surname.
HOwever a warning.
Sometimes- particularly in USA - women after marriage use their maiden name as a middle name, so be careful (this has been seen in England too)
Bob
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Definitely useful in a lot of my cases as when following the Scottish naming pattern the children were given the surname of the maternal/paternal grandmother or the paternal grandfather that they were named after as a middle name.
However the middle name of a ggg grandfather , John Campbell McIhern (or other phonetic spellings) was rather annoying as he came to use this as a surname. Meant had his death as John Campbell and him on census returns but couldn't find death of wife or any of the children as he used the McIhern surname.
Gordon