03 March 2010

Why The Name?

The third prompt courtesy of Lisa at The Accidental Genealogist:

March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.
Katherine (Johnson) Garrett Daniel

I was named after my Grandma Katie (she's Katherine and I'm Catherine). It was nice to have that connection with her. She was married to this guy and fled the state (Michigan) to get away from him, so I rarely saw her and didn't know her well. She looks pensive in that photo, but the few times she did visit, her energetic and sunny personality shone through. Grandma Katie was named after her mother, Katie (Rice) Johnson.

My middle name, Marilyn, was given to me because I shared a birthday with one of my parents' friends, Marilyn Robinson.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post! Frances Hunter is my pen name; but my real middle name is Hunter. I was named Elizabeth Hunter after my great-grandmother, who was a Scottish immigrant and was named Eliza McIntosh Hunter. I wish I had ever gotten to meet her. I understand that she was pretty tough. She worked in the jute mills of Dundee, Scotland, and saved pennies in a can towards the cause of immigrating to the United States with her husband (a carpenter on a whaling ship) and their many children.

When she was elderly, her children offered to pay for a trip back to Scotland to visit. But she turned them down. She said, "I worked too damn hard to get away from the place."

PalmsRV said...

Frances, Right back at ya! Great comment. I have lots of Scots ancestors. Wonder if they felt the way that Eliza did?!

Cathy