Quiet Clues That Our Ancestors Left Us
- William B. Taylor
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Over the past 23 years I have repeatedly come across a naming practice that many ancestors have done that almost always indicates that that particular lineage contains family members who they wanted us to remember: using a family surname as the middle, or sometimes even the first name for a child or even several of their children.
My paternal great grandparents (my paternal grandmother's parents) and by that I am assuming my great grandmother, included the surname "Rae" in several of their children's names such as well as "Hall", both of which are family surnames of my great grandmother. It may be coincidental that my grandmother's lineage leads back to wealthy and even noble Scottish families, but I think that this was done for a reason, either as a tribute to her ancestry or possible to leave future generations clues for finding the correct family ancestors. The surname Hall or Rae was included in the names of 4 of their children which, when I traced back the family on through my Rae ancestors lead me to our Stewart (or Stuart) family line as well as to the Bruce family line, both containing Scottish and English royalty.
I started finding more and more examples of other distant relatives (aunts, uncles or cousins) who had done the same thing when it came to the naming of their children, especially with my more famous distant relatives such as celebrities and politicians. Some examples of some of my more well known relatives with such names are:
Richard Tiffany Gere - Tiffany being his mother's surname.
Matthew Staton Bomer - Staton being his mother's surname.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Delano was his mother's surname.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill - Spencer was a family surname through his father.
Elizabeth Macy Staton (Matt Bomer's mother) - Macy was her mother's surname.
Humphrey DeForest Bogart - Humphrey was his mother's surname while DeForest was his father's middle name.
Irene Stiles Munsall (a 3rd paternal cousin dating back to the early 1800's) - Stiles is an important family surname dating back to her 3rd great-grandmother.
I have dozens of other examples of relatives who have done this as well. What was first unusual to me quickly became a beacon for me to be able to more easily follow the correct ancestors through the generations. I really wish that my Smith ancestors, of which I have many throughout my family tree, had done this - just try tracing your "Smith" family someday - it's not a lot of fun! With few exceptions, this little "clues" used in names have lead me to even more discoveries of well known historic people.
Maybe I've watched too many whodunnit shows and movies, but I really think that I'm on to something here. Even if the use of surnames as middle names (or first names in the case of Humphrey Bogart) are purely coincidental, they have been extremely helpful for me to be able to ensure that I'm on the right track when "hunting" family history.
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