Family names....

[Jen~Ealogy]

Mid 1700's, a families daughter is given the middle name of SHORT and a son is given the middle name of WELCH.

As the mother has only been found with her married name, might it be safe to assume that one of the above names could have been her maiden name?

I have found one or two possibilities/matches for same but can't confirm without knowing more of region of origin etc.

[Janet in Yorkshire]

"As the mother has only been found with her married name, might it be safe to assume that one of the above names could have been her maiden name?"

Very likely to have been maiden names somewhere along the line, but with one of my families these sorts of names came from further back - i.e grandmothers.

Safe to hazzard a guess, but never safe to assume!!!!;D

Jay

[Jen~Ealogy]

That's what I mean Janet, you worded it so much better.

[Durham Lady]

You need to look at all family connections to hopefully find where names come from.

As well as being given their great grandmothers surname as a christian name some of my fathers siblings were given the surnames of my paternal grandfathers brothers in law surnames!

[Jen~Ealogy]

Thanks Daphne, I've all ready had one ancestor whose given middle name had come down the line from a deceased older brother but so far it's their mother whose maiden name I am trying to find and as I haven't got any further back than her yet (about 1720), there is no way to check those names in the frame, but I shall keep looking out for them.
Thank you for your replies.

[colin taylor]

Selina married Andrew Singleton in Sep 1849 but he died in March 1850.... her brothers child was born Dec 1851 and he gave that child the middle name Singleton and a later child he named Selina Singleton and the name has become a tradition

[Anne in Carlisle]

I have one whose middle name is the surname of his Step-grandfather!! No relation to him at all - they must have liked him or perhaps he was leaving them something!

Anne

[margaretmarch]

Getting something in a will or hoping to do so often prompts people to name children after distant relatives or even non-relatives!!
Margaret

[Jen~Ealogy]

My 3rd Great grandfather Samuel Cornish Brandon was given the name Cornish after his older brother died, and that too became a bit of a tradition Colin, until Cornish was eventually dropped.

Anne, I had a step grandfather, after my grandfather died, all though never met either of them. He didn't leave any money but one rather fantastic story which circulated around the family, has so far, never been proved. So much for relying on family stories lol!

Just wish they had known someone with money Margaret, so far they were all so poor, even my grandfather was burried in a paupers grave, as was one of his baby daughters who died at 6 months.
It's not surprising though, as his widow, my gran, had at least 6/7 children of 12, still to bring up.

[Little Nell]

My gt x 3 grandfather Emmets Matthews was named after his paternal grandmother. Sometimes surnames given as first or middle names don't seem to have any family connection. Of course they might have been named after a friend or godparent's surname.

My ex has two gt times several uncles, one called William Holmstead (or Olmstead) Marsden and one called Lewis Cottingham Marsden but I have no idea where their middle names came from!

[Harrys mum]

Not always, Jen.

I spent ages looking for the Morgans and Tracys in my Huband family. I'd found Scobell and Grant as family names, so assumed the others were as well.
NO
I eventually found them in a directory as the local solicitor and butcher...........lol

[Olde Crone Holden]

I made a major mistake by assuming that an unusual middle name came from the father's employer, a local bigwig.

It was YEARS before I reassessed my work and realised that the "unusual middle name" was actually the real surname - parents not married bt pretending to be, on the census. Parallel families had confused the issue, but anyway, the local bigwig employer was nothing to do with any of it!!!

OC

[Olde Crone Holden]

On the other hand, though......my Scottish relatives, in common with many other Scottish people, have elaborate middle names which generally turn out to e a grandparent's surname and so on. However, my mother had a brother who had the middle names "Charles Smith" which didn't seem a very likely Scottish name and there were no Smiths known to me at that point.

Imagine how stunned I was to find my 7 x GGF, one Charles Smith, born in 1698! The name had never been repeated in the family naming traditions, but up it popped after 230 years, remembered by someone in the family. How utterly amazing...or was there a family bible which no-one is telling me about?!

OC

[dicole]

Brent was given as a middle name for a long time in my family - Thomas Brent was not a relation, but the blacksmith, a family friend and mentor who died unmarried and left his estate to my g-g-g-grandfather's children. We wondered for a long time until we found them all living in the same household in the census. In my OHs family, Edward Leighton Sanderson was named after his grandfathers brother-in-law was a an independent minister.

[Anne in Carlisle]

I forgot another amusing one! One set of children had unusual 'surname-type' middle names. After many years of trying a street map of the area in which they were born provided all these names!!! Perhaps they had been given them in an effort to sound 'posh'??

Anne

[Jen~Ealogy]

Going off all the replies here, it appears the reasons for some middle names can be many and varied then lol!
Safest not to assume, merely to consider.

[Lindsay]

You might have to go back a few years to find the name - one branch of my family used the same name as a middle name for 5 generations!

[Uncle John]

When preparing for my (Scottish) m-i-l's funeral the minister asked where her unusual middle name came from. I found the answer a few weeks later, having pushed her side of the family back another 2 generations.

[JayG]

Having solved where my Wheatman Readman got his first name i'm yet to find where this grandfather Wheatman Smith got his from! Not helped by the spelling interchanging between Whiteman & Weightman!