Genealogy Chat

My grandfathers' middle name was Lifsey. I haven't managed to find any family connection and I would really love to know where he got the name from.

Caz

LOL I was "Blessed" by my parenst with the wonderful name of my dads favourite uncle .......... nice tribute to him, but not for me cos I have a male middle name & I am female!

No one but my nearest & dearest know it - even the HR dept at work have had their orders to not put it on ANY paperwork.

Gail

Hugh Wallis covers this subject on his IGI batch numbers website:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~hughwallis/

Penny

my Dads uncle has the Middle name of Mansell.......... cant find any reasoning for it, he wasnt the oldest child, his mother & grandmothers maiden names weren't Mansell, and his parents were def married before he was born, I have the cert.
LOL does make my life easier thos cos the Family name was Smith so he tends to stand out.

Gail

It's also worth looking at social history around the time your ancestor was born.
Middle names such as Winston or Churchill crop up between 1940 - 1945.
And of course - Victoria & Albert during the late 1800s.

Christine

My 4xgrt grandmother was Frances Bartendale Oates, Bartendale was her fathers mothers maiden name, her sister was Elizabeth Boden Oates, Boden being from her mothers maiden name. Great help in proving who's who.

One of my relatives has the name George Lindergreen Jenkins Baker. Actually, it's down as Lindergen and Lindergreen according to where you look. Jenkins was his mother's maiden name, but I still haven't managed to trace the Lindergreen even after two years!

I have two Uncles, Grandfather,and Gt Grandfather with the middle name Fishwick, this was the maiden name of my Gt Gt Gt Grandmother

I've brought my old Philadelphia thread back from the dead for all you Philadelphia fans!

Yes usually an unusual middle name will be a family surname - but not always! One of my gt-grand aunts was Elizabeth Winchester Sugden - an unusual middle name, especially for a female. However, I could find no family connection to anyone with the Winchester surname. Then I realised that she was born at sea (her father was a soldier and she was born en route for India). When I traced her birth, the name of the ship was - of course - HMS Winchester!

I think Philadelphia is a lovely name

Hi Romany ,thats interesting , cant see how it fits with the family in this instance .Her dad was a Mariner in the Royal Navy and mums family were all mariners from Heybridge in Essex. Wonder what might crop up tho .Martha was born in 1830

I found family members because my gr, grandmother's maiden name was used as a second name.

Is it? We have a Philadelphia somewhere back there in the tree ... Sounds exciting!

Jill

Shirley, Philadelphia is a popular Romany name.

Middle names are frequently the names of grandmothers maiden name

My 5xgrt grandmothers elder sister was Martha Philadelphia Wood. No connection to Philadelphia known and she wasnt illegitimate

Yes, Lux.

Using family surnames as 2nd and/or 3rd given names is not uncommon in my tree. Even have one branch where a family surname was given to one daughter, and an anagram of the surname to her younger sister.

Have just come across one relative who was lumbered with the names Pharoah Abraham when he was born. No surprise he never used his 1st name as soon he was old enough to answer back!!

i found my great grandmother through my grandfathers middle name his name was harry then middle name DITCHFIELD hurst ditchfield being his mothers maiden name maybe our ancestors were trying to leave us a clue..