Light bulb moment?

[Sherbertrose]

I thought I had one of those light bulb moments last night but now I am not so sure.

I am working on my husbands Uttley's who centre on the Wath upon Dearne, Wentworth and Greasbrough areas of Rotherham. There are a lot of them and all my husbands lot have John as the father - at least four generations!!

I know that that the parents of John Uttley's born 1738 were John Uttley and Martha. However, I have not been able to find a marriage for John and Martha. John had 5 known siblings born to the above parents - Ann born 1736, Bette born 1741, James born 1743 and Willoughby born 1745. Martha died in 1746

In the extended family there are a number of Truelove Uttley's the name of which originated from the marriage of Rebecca Truelove and James Uttley who married in Barnsley 1706. I am now thinking that Martha's surname may have been Willoughby as it is not a common Christian name and is more common as a surname.

Considering that there did seem to be a precedent for naming children by the surname of the mother do you think this theory is worth perusing or am singing in the dark?

Sandra

[fran]

It is worth looking into,even if you find that it is not her name.Sometimes these hunches pay off,and sometimes they don't.I would have to find out.
Fran

[Chrissie Smiff]

It's possible Sandra and anything is worth trying. However, Willoughby is known as a Christian name. A friend that I help with his tree has one or two of them and no sign of any ancestors with the surname Willoughby. Sorry if I've put a dampener on it.

[Olde Crone Holden]

Chrissie

But your Willoughby probably stems from a surname association way back. These unusual "surname first names" are not common first names at the time, when first names would be taken almost exclusively from the bible - anything else would have had some kind of family significance.

I have a line where the first son is named Wade. This tracks back to a marriage in the 1500s, between two locally important families.

OC

[Heather Positive Thinker]

Oh forgive me, but I immediately wondered if you were going to say did they start the Utterly Butterly company *creeps away...............