CONFUSING LISTING OF GREAT-GREAT GRANDMA'S SURNAME(S) : QUESTIONS FROM READERS of ANCESTRY WORSHIP - GENEALOGY

Readers please note that I've changed the names given by this reader due to a need for privacy.

Q: I'm looking at some information on the Internet that was added to a genealogy database by someone else, someone I don't know. This concerns my great-great grandmother in Arkansas. My great-great grandmother is listed as Mary Johnson, Formerly Marie Smith. Someone else posted Mary Johnson was Formerly Marie Walker. What does this mean?

Thanks,

Alice

A: Hello Alice. 

I find the way that information was posted as a bit strange - and confusing - as if the postings came from stories or rumors rather than genealogy research. "Formerly" could mean this was a previous surname or previous married name. And as you found the same woman also listed by someone else as "Formerly" with yet another surname, it could be that your great-great grandmother was married twice. Also this could indicate an informal or formal name change. Or an adoption.

Let's go over this:

First, we cannot believe everything that is posted on the Internet or on databases that offer individuals to post their research (or family stories or rumors), especially when no documents are attached, especially because I see these errors uploaded to multiple genealogy sites.

Secondly, the history of name changes in Arkansas is that informal (common law) name changes were recognized for some time, even when the process of legal (court ordered) name changes was introduced in 1851. In other words, she could have changed her name because she wanted to, without being married, widowed, or divorced, and without a legal proceeding.

So, I would suggest that you try to get a birth certificate or church record of her birth/baptism and see what it says. I would also suggest you try to get a death certificate or cemetery/funeral home document. And of course, any evidence of her marriage or marriages through marriage certificates. I trust you have traced her back as far as you can go with census records as well. 

1830 is the first Federal Census for that state and you can also check the State Census' which were done in 1823,1829.1865, and 1911.

There are better ways to indicate that a woman is being listed by her maiden name.

Instead of the word "formerly"

Marie "Mary" Johnson née Marie Smith

Marie "Mary" Johnson born Marie Smith

Marie "Mary" Smith - Johnson

Marie "Mary" Smith, wife of Jed Johnson

Mrs. Marie "Mary" Johnson, born Marie Walker

Ask yourself, which of these forms is least confusing and most informative!

Keep Researching!

Christine

C 2026 Ancestry Worship - Genealogy All Rights Reserved

ELLIS ISLAND PASSENGER RECORDS and THE MYTH OF NAME CHANGES and ETHNIC NAMES #3

There's a popular myth that passengers debarking from steerage (3rd class) off steamships at ELLIS ISLAND sometimes had their surnames changed by authority figures - clerks. It's not true. 

However, if you were an illiterate passenger who spoke your name in your own language, it's possible that the person hearing and recording your name could make an error. But wait a minute! You have a ticket. You were added to a list of passengers departing from another port where your surname was also recorded, and by someone whose first language was German or your native language. Even if you never went to school and couldn't read and write in your own language, you might have learned to sign your name. (And signing your name might mean that on American census, when asked if you're literate, the answer is yes.)

Did some immigrants change their own names or the spelling of them, given and/or surnames? They did. Sometimes more than once. Usually they did so informally, by use, rather than what we do now, go to court. Making a break from the Old World and starting anew in the New World was an opportunity to develop a new identity. (And yes, some immigrants would drop a religion they felt held them back or disappear and never send for a wife left behind.)

What this has to do with finding an ancestor on a database that includes the port of New York - or really any other port - is that you might be looking for the name of the person to be consistent with the name you know them by, which might be the name on a census or naturalization papers or not.

My experience is that the given name is the first to be changed to be Americanized. There are thousands of Maria's who become Mary's. I found one who became Mammie. That's easy. 

You should always consider the name and its variants, Americanized, then go back to ethnic origins. Doing so and running a given name through databases has helped me find some ancestors whose surnames were really screwed up by census takers and other recorders. Screwed up in spelling or in confusing bad handwriting that was then transcribed into bad text, but not, if you go forward, changed after all.

Take the name Walenty. I found him using not Walter, but Valentine. An accurate translation by the way.

Elizabeta became Betty, Beth, and Lizzy.

Consider Lawrence, a man who self identified as Polish and left a village near the Ukraine, which was Galicia. (But who turned out to be Ruthenian and in Greek Catholic records.) In Polish his name is Wawrzyniec. In German, one of the languages he spoke, Lars. Lorenz, Lauren, or Leuz. In Russian, Lavrent, Levrentiy. And so on. Lawrence went to work as a crew member on a ship where his given and surname were Germanicized.

Although you might think that English versions of a name were prioritized, for central and eastern Europeans, German was a second language so using German equivalents was more comfortable and useful. German speaking people were already in America and used that language in common, especially in the workplace. So I've seen Slavic given and surnames become German by spelling or meaning. 

Consider a name change when your ancestors just doesn't seem to be on records you seek.

C 2021

This post is part of a series of posts focused on Ellis Island, New York Harbor, and Industrial Age immigrants.

CHILDRENS GIVEN NAMES ARE GETTING MORE BIZARRE

CLAIRE SUDDATH of Yahoo News reports that the Social Security Administration has released the top baby names for 2009 were Isabella and Jacob but are people naming their babies after vampires?

"Cullen is also part of a larger trend: two-syllable male names that end in the sound en. Aiden is another example (12th most popular name). So is Jayden (No. 8), Logan (No. 17), Nathan (No. 24), Kevin (No. 44), Justin (No. 46) and a name I'd never heard of before: Brayden. At No. 47, it means I'll probably start meeting a number of Braydens in about 20 years. Likewise, nearly half of the 50 most popular girl names end in the letter a, like Isabella. Why does this happen? Why do parents so often choose the same names for their newborns?" .

Read more about the TWILIGHT EFFECT!