Hi Jann, I mean, really retro. How lucky you were to find that Freedmans Bank document! I would still recommend all of these books, except the first one listed for obvious reasons. My mother then told me my fathers name was John Barnett, a white man, and I took up the name Barnett., My mothers name was Jane and she was called Jane Nunn because she belonged to the Nunns. Fernsby, (Old English Origin) Derived from the old English words meaning "fern farmstead". LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. I love to hear from my readers. One frequently occurring name is Rolle. I am awar eof the different naming traditions practiced in that area and I thank you for sharing them here for my readers. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here. An 's' at the end of a personal name also meant 'son of', for example Richards, Stevens, Williams and so on. Hi Rodney, Elijah is derived from the Hebrew name Eliyahu, composed of the elements. The Genealogy Source Table Collection includes 10 blank, editable source tables for death certificates, city directories, obituaries and funeral programs. . A Wessyngton slave named Bill who was the plantations blacksmith was known as Billy the Smith during slavery. Surnames (not always those of former owners) would then be adopted as family names by former slaves and their descendants. People of the Atlantic Slave Trade - Database Robyn, Unraveling the origins of FPOC and slaves in Francophone Louisiana takes some thinking outside the fact, meticulous research ,familiarity with the local culture, history and a bit of serendipity on your side. This is true in some cases but not all. Hi Jim, Names and Naming, African Africans arriving in the American colonies and later the United States continued to give their children African names well into the nineteenth century. 30 January 2022, [PAST EVENT], Eastern Standard Time: Join special guest genealogist Taneya Y. Koonce and I as we present our joint Zoom webinar, Organize Your Genealogy! Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. ", "If you can't get rid of the skeleton in your closet, you might as well make it dance! This database is a compilation of information on over four thousand slaves from Louisiana who were involved in manumission (the formal emancipation from slavery) between 1719 and 1820. They were all sold to different owners: Connell, Rose, Johnson, and Hughes respectively. The table below shows the most common last names with statistics on the heritage and ancestry of those with the surname. An enslaved child sold away from their parents at a young age to the Deep South would probably have a different sense of naming than enslaved children who were able to grow up in the presence of their parents and extended family. Daniel Odgen, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts In The Greek and Roman Worlds, p. 119, Laurence Vidal, Los Amantes de Granada, Ed. See flier for more details. I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. I did not even check the 1850 slave schedule. The Missouri Compromisealso referred to as the Compromise of 1820was an agreement between the pro- and anti-slavery factions regulating slavery in the western territories. . Trinidad and Tobago. Proving their identity as former soldiers often revealed some of the most detailed explanations for former slaves choice of surnames. In the 1930s, ex-slave Martin Jackson explained why he chose his last name after Emancipation: The master's name was usually adopted by a slave after he was set free. All of them are alive in this moment. Several of the other slaves were sold to various slave owners. This may reveal your family used the surname of the slave owners wifes family. U.S. Slavery: Timeline, Figures & Abolition - HISTORY No, I dont know to whom she belonged before she was brought from Virginia to Kentucky. Enslaved people often transferred such names to later generations in modified form or relied on African naming traditions, such as "day names" or names reflecting the order of birth among siblings. . Evidence indicates that many enslaved parents named their children after the first generation or so of family members brought to America. 20 August 2022, 1-3:30 pm [PAST EVENT], Eastern Standard Time: Join me for a two-hour lecture and workshop on Using Deed Records. -Winston Churchill, "The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never ever introduce yourself to had life not done it for you." Smithsonian Institution. Forenames. The Complexity of Slave Surnames > Reclaiming Kin He was sold to my master William Orr and he always went by the name Edward Orr after that.. 3. Societies. Cheryll Cody, "'There Was No Absalom on the Ball Plantation': Slave-Naming Practices in the South Carolina Low Country, 1720-1865," American Historical Review 92 (June 1987). Early African-American Names | Nameberry -Kendall Hailey, "If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all the generations of your ancestors. Most Common English Surnames & Meanings - Forebears Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. Feel free to contact me directly if you have more questions or need some assistance. In order to receive their pensions decades later, these former soldiers and their family members had to demonstrate to the government that they were who they claimed to be. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one", "Friends are God's apologies for relations. Thanks for commenting and continued luck in your research, Popular Last Names in the 1920s Gatsby Flapper Girl Login Forgot . . Women tended to have two names, and slaves often just had one. In freedom, Jean-Louis was known as Louis SEM or Louis FUSELIER until finally using SAM. List of slaves - Wikipedia Letter to Armistead Burt of September 1, 1831, sfn error: no target: CITEREFCalhoun1837 (. The 2000 U.S. Census counted 163,036 people with the surname Washington. See flier here. Q. .When I got home after the war, I was wearing the name of Lewis Smith, but I found that the negroes after freedom, were taking the names of their father like the white folks. 17. This event is $12. It is certainly possible that Wilsons siblings could have been sold away or owned by others. This happened mostly on large plantations where several individuals had the same first names and a surname was used to distinguish them from one another. "Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation." In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. Got.the name.Auber.. Hi Roxana, By the late 19th century, England was home to about 300 surnames with traceable genealogy. Alfred Francis Russell (1817-1884), 10th President of Liberia. I am the identical person who served in the said companies under the name of Lewis Smith. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. However, the enslaved occasionally had surnames, which became normal leading up to and after emancipation as a mark of assimilation into free society. Slavery - The National Archives This happened mostly on large plantations where several individuals had the same first names and a surname was used to distinguish them from one another. He was a slave owner and, in 1800 as Chief Justice of New Brunswick, he supported slavery in defiance of British practice at the time. I worked for him as nurse for his children, and my full and correct name was OCTAVIA, but the family could not "catch on" to that long name and called me "LOTTIE" for short. James) will have . Thomas Black Cobbs was owned by a small slave owner Catherine Black. Some last names recognize certain histories or describe important events or narratives that mean a lot to the family. The idea was for the children to enter the inhumane system of slavery protected by a sense of Selfhood and history. A. This lively Old Testament nature name (belonging to one of the three beautiful daughters of Job) may be missing from the current US Top 1000 list, but it ranks highly here on Nameberry making it one to watch! Garcia (The Spanish form of Gerald, Garcia would be the son of Gerald. Political Participation in the Nineteenth Century Atlantic Portugal and Brazile in the Age of Revolutions, Poverty in the Early Modern English Atlantic, Reconstruction, Democracy, and United States Imperialism, Settlement and Region in British America, 1607-1763, Slavery in British and American Literature, Slavery in Dutch America and the West Indies, Slavery in North America, The Growth and Decline of. I liked the name better than Octavia, and so I took it with me to Danville, and was never called anything else there than that name. Ethereal and delicate, Cassandra was in the Top 70 throughout the 1990s but is now descending in popularity. The battle was long and hard-fought, with pro-slavery campaigners arguing that the slave trade was important for the British economy and claiming that enslaved Africans were happy and well-treated. What were common names for slaves in the 1800s? - Kyoto2.org -Unknown, "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city;)" Former slaves often made up surnames based on their occupations. How did you ever come by the name of "Mollie"? These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people. In his pension file, my great great grandmother his widow expressed that he chose his former enslaver surname because his father had been enslaved by them, too. Enslaved people resisted in ways large and small. This is such a well-written and informative post one that I know will open many eyes to the complexity of slave surnames, as well as many other aspects of the lives of the enslaved. Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974). - Jane Howard, "Friends are God's apologies for relations." CAs Push to Restore Voting Rights to System-Impacted Individuals Still in Custody, Eli Lilly to Cap Out-of-Pocket Insulin Costs, Asm. Rodriguez (Rodriguez is Spanish for the son of Rodrigo. Ref. I was called mostly Lewis Smith till after the war, although I was named Dick Lewis Smith After the War, I was wearing the name Lewis Smith, but I found the negroes were taking the names of their fathers, like the white folks. Slavery's reach is still with us, and part of the gift of doing African-American genealogy is recovering the stories of those caught in its grasp who could not in their own time leave their own witness.". In fact, the previous enslaver widow sold most of the slaves. Interestingly, the five most common American surnames as of 2010 haven't changed that much over time and are Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, and Jones. See flier for details; cost of this event is $25. Many Welsh surnames follow this pattern, with Jones (from 'John's son) being the most common. They are part of Records of the U.S. Customs Service . In Greek mythology, Daphne was the nymph daughter of Peneus, a river god. I also have a Slavery and Freedom Collection available for $20. Copy this link, or click below to email it to a friend. Each is present in your body. James: (M) (Latin origin) means "heel" or "supplanter". Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. Who called you by that name and where was it done? It prohibited. Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate. I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. 100 Victorian Last Names With Meanings And History | Kidadl Corbin Corbin has an Old English origin. "While African-American genealogical research in many ways is like all genealogical research, the era of slavery makes the task especially challenging. This page is currently showing names ranked from 1 to 1000. Isaac evolved from the name Yitzchaq, derived from the Hebrew word, Lysander is a distinctive Greek name that could be thought of as a more creative cousin of Alexander. My father would be 105 if he were alive. I also see that in 1900 she is listed as widow with 1 child living, so you may have luck trying to find out who her child was. 120 Most Popular African Last Names Or Surnames - MomJunction Harris: A patronymic meaning son of Harry. That is why you will find a lot of families in Louisiana with surnames like Baptiste, Narcisse, Jean-Louis, Nanette-Louise, Rene, Jacques etc Ive come across very few former slaves and fpoc using the surnames of their former owner. I would also recommend Elizabeth Shown Mills various case studies on enslaved people in Louisiana, which you can find at her website at https://www.historicpathways.com/articles.html. Cook Cook has an Old English origin, and it means 'one who cooks' or 'one who sold cooked meat'. Recently, I was looking for more information on Wesley Thompson, who was born about 1835 and who was living in Morgan County, Alabama with his wife, Nellie, and five children in 1880. For more details, see the flier here, and you can purchase them here. But the Slaves generally had two namesthe one given by the slave owner (e.g. Many took the surname of famous or celebrated people; such as 'Lincoln', 'Grant', and 'Washington' was very popular. In 1911, Barnett and Frys widow, Mollie, both applied for pensions from the government. Melvin, Some scholars of slavery have come to view the names and naming of enslaved people as agauge of many aspects oflife and culture during enslavement and of howcustoms changed over time. common last names for slaves in the 1800s . ", "Families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts. Anthropologist Meyer Fortes's observation that the naming practices of any society "epitomize personal experiences, historical happenings, attitudes to life, and cultural ideas and values" holds particularly true for African American enslaved people. 1800s-1850s: Expansion of slavery in the U.S. - NBC News 3. These require Microsoft Word and a Windows platform. Jackson: This name is a patronymic of Jack. I found in the Civil War registry, an enslaved man who enrolled in the infantry under the name of Wash Ellis. . "The past is not dead. Turner was deeply religious,. I was bornthe child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. So far Ive found no one who can give me any information about how these people assumed the Culbert surname. Although it is not widely known, some African Americans used surnames before they were emancipated. I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. Questions about slave naming intersect with some of the major debates in slavery studies (especially regarding Creolization and the formation of Atlantic Creoles) and can illuminate issues about the ethnicity of African slaves, the personhood and agency of those enslaved, the nature of kinship structures among the enslaved, and the survival of African cultural practices in the diaspora. Thats high on my to do list. Slave Names and Naming in the Anglophone Atlantic However the frequent rebellions by . Copyright 2006 by the University of North Carolina Press. Of the 972 names of male Slaves recorded between 1619 and 1799 the leading ones were Jack, Tom, Harry, Sam, Will, Caesar, Dick, John, Robin, Frank, Charles, Joe and Prince. Names. Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. Join me as I present this NEW webinar that covers why we miss our ancestors in these records and presents numerous strategies to assist in finding every clue in census records. Robyn, youve done it again! But once freed most immediately chose surnames, with or without keeping their accustomed name. This was the case with several others from Wessyngton. 1754 Excerpts from the Courant for June 22 to 29, 1754 at Jamaican Family Search Genealogy Research Library - contain the names of some "runaway slaves" or indentured servants, and information about them. Burton, Richard D.E. Names and Naming in Afro-Caribbean Culture. New West Indian Guide/Nieuwe West-Indische Gids 73 (1999): 3558. Wonderful to have first hand account that help shine light on the attitudes of our ancestors. And now that it's been chosen by Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, it could take off as their first son's nameKingstonhas. I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. Cora: We first fell in love with this short baby girl's name from Downton Abbey, but Cora was already popular in the 1800s, meaning 'maiden' or 'good'. Tags: African American Names, African American Surnames, African Names, Black Surnames, Last Slave Owner, Plantation Owners, plantation slavery, Slave Family, Slave Naming Patterns, slave trade. Available from https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2014.174.8?destination=/explore/collection/search%3Fedan_q%3Denslaved%26edan_fq%255B0%255D%3Dobject_type%253A%2522Photographs%2522 (accessed May 6, 2022). Popular last names in the 1800's? - Answers -Elbert Hubbard, "Families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts." South Atlantic Creole A Spanish America After Independence, 1825-1900, Tudor and Stuart Britain in the Wider World, 1485-1685, Warfare, Medicine, and Disease in the Atlantic World. College Advanced AA Gen. Class, November 2012, Robyn, Aaron, Karen, Katherine and Michael, October 2014, African-American Family History Conference, February 2015, African-American Genealogy Group Conference, October 2016, Central Maryland AAHGS, with Alice Harris, September 2015, Howard Comm. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts South Atlantic Creole Archipelagos Enslaved people suffered constant sale, where children were frequently torn away from parents at young ages and spouses were often separated. There are issues, too, about how to interpret the recorded names, which have been classified in different ways depending on researchers interests. Used by permission of the publisher. Robyn. Q. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. The majority of these slaves used the surname Lewis instead of Washington. Best of luck to you in your research, I was only three years old when she died. Surnames - Historic UK Best of luck to you, Renate, And again, as a white Southerner whose ancesters were NOT slaveowners, your blog is helping me to understand the real and horrible legacy of the peculiar institution. It is these single names that have been most often studied. For more information about the records covered in this index,please contact the History and Genealogy Department. They are held at The National Archives (Kew, England). 41. My full name is Dick Lewis Barnett. . Most Popular African Last Names Or Surnames. Former slaves also interchanged surnames on census records. They did so either to take on a surname for the first time, or to replace a name or surname given to them by a former master. Abel, the name of Adam and Eve's unfortunate younger son, compensates with positive connotations: capable, competent, ready and willing. Who called you by that name and where was it done? We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. In small communities where census takers and county officials knew African Americans personally and their previous owners, they often recorded the former slaves with the surnames of their last owners. Bernard Meaning: brave warrior Origin: French 4. 2. Edited by Gabriele vom Bruck and Barbara Bodenhorn, 178-199. Bailey, Word Stories Surrounding African American Slavery. 13 March 2022, 1-2:30pm [PAST EVENT], Eastern Standard Time: Cant find some of your ancestors in the census? Until recently, scholarly consensus was that early African American names did not differ significantly from those of white Americans. Q. The practice was common until its abolition in 1865 with the end of the Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.. For the time being, we are using this as the Slavery Plantation umbrella or portal. The Voice of the Black Community in California, Last Updated on October 14, 2010 by Paulette Brown-Hinds. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries African-American slaves retained Africanisms in their naming practices. A. Lottie Smith was my name and what they called me before I met Phillip and was married to him. In 1870, he is listed as John Washington. It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name Lottie, as already explained. New surnames were created from a local regions name such as Smithfield the name taken might be Smith or Field. Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 - December 5, 1784) Source = Wikimedia. Most Common Black Last Names in the United States - Name Census 6. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, more biblical names were given to enslavedchildren, a reflection of the widespread attempts to Christianize enslaved communities. The existence of those surnames in the area would help to verify, but also, you are fortunate to have the important oral history of that name change in the first place, since so many of us dont. BRATHWAITE - This name was derived from a geographic location in the north of England. Wide-ranging survey of naming practices in the (mainly Anglophone) Atlantic world both during and after slavery. A krio from.Freetown Sierra Leone. 1. It gives the age and sex of the slave and the number of slaves of each age and sex. My mothers name was Octavia Smith and it was from her that I got it but where the name came from to her I never knew. This blog is where I share family history methods, resources, tips and advice, with an emphasis on slave research, slavery and its aftermath. In the 1760s Anglo-American frontiersmen, determined to settle the land, planted slavery firmly within the borders of what would become Tennessee. The following documents are excerpts from government records in which Dick Barnett and Mollie (Smith) Russell explain when and why they changed their names.