Every child with the same middle name?

[Paul Caswell]

Hi All,

I dont understand why these families did this. Perhaps someone has an idea.

I have two families:

Isaac Stockley b1799 m Jane Roe
Children:
Mary Williams Stockley b1822
Jane Williams Stockley b1823
Margaret Williams Stockley b1825
Sarah Williams Stockley b1827

Not sure where the Williams comes from as yet.

Joh Stockley b1795 m Jane Richards
Children:
William Richards Stockley b1827
James Richards Stockley b1829
Caroline Richards Stockley b1831
Mary Jane Richards Stockley b1833

We have all come across a few families that remember mothers maiden name or grandparents names through middle names of their children but usually there is just one or two of the children like this. Here I have two contemporary families naming ALL of their children this way.

Strange....

Paul

[LizzieW]

In my tree,  Phillips was a middle name for many years.

It is not a family name but it was almost a thank you.  One member of the family was living with a Mary Phillips as a servant.  From her will, it seems that Mary Phillips, although described as a fish seller was rich enough to own five tenements and have ready cash and household silver.  She left most of this wealth to some of my ancestors and left money for education etc of my g.g.grandmother.  Messuages (dwelling houses) and tenements,  land and hereditaments were assigned to my g.g.grandmother and her heirs forever.  Unfortunately, my g.grandmother married an alcoholic and all her money disappeared.

My mother remembered hearing that some of my g.g.gran's children were  well educated and had "posh" accents and the younger ones, after the money had disappeared had a normal education and Manchester accents.

Lizzie

[Springbok]

My husband was at school with three brothers having both their second and third middle names in common.

I have just taken a look at Ancestry and the youngest is on there (1928 birth)
and his mothers maiden name is their  second middle name.( the first being a mans name)
OH always thought that they had an hyphenated surname, but it is only as an intial on the entry.

It is one of his memories which have stuck,with me, as their first names were straight out of P.G.Wodehouse!!

My Grandpa and two of his brothers had Wyllie as a second or third name.Their mothers maiden name, and the other two had Augustus, but no idea why the latter.

Spring

[sula_nebouxii]

I know of a family where the 3 sons - born 1940s-50s - had the same middle name, so did their father and grandfather.  The name sounds like a surname, so maybe it was great-grandmother's maiden name   As far as I know, it did not get passed on!

sula

[sallysmum]

Gt grandfather had the middle name Sparke, his mother's maiden name.  I believe the knowledge of this got lost and several children and grandchildren inherited this as a middle name.  Folklore then evolved that it would bring wealth to the child with this middle name as the Pearson's were of wealthy stock!  This part of the folklore has yet to be proven!

Sallysmum

[trish251]

I just found a family where every child had the same middle name - it was the mother's maiden name      - so very useful - wish my families had done the same!

Trish

[harewoodhouse]

  perhaps middle name was the maiden name of the mother and there should be a - between the middle and last name, or the children were from a first marriage and just tacked on the step fathers surame to theirs which would make their surname now look like a middle name ? just a thought

[justmej]

I have 3 cousins, all siblings, who have the same two middle names (their grandparents surnames). 

One middle name that carried down the male line in our family, until my uncle died 3 years ago, was initially what started me off on my family history, to find out who it originally belonged to.

justmej

[aghadowey]

Isaac Stockley b1799 m Jane Roe
Children:
Mary Williams Stockley b1822
Jane Williams Stockley b1823
Margaret Williams Stockley b1825
Sarah Williams Stockley b1827

Joh Stockley b1795 m Jane Richards
Children:
William Richards Stockley b1827
James Richards Stockley b1829
Caroline Richards Stockley b1831
Mary Jane Richards Stockley b1833

Am wondering where the above information came from- did you see it in the original source or a transcript, IGI, etc.? as it looks almost like mother's name has been inserted as a middle name.