I have done quite a bit of genealogy for my own family, and it was difficult enough, but what you are doing, is incredible work. The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation: Stories of My Familys Journey to Freedom, A Thank You Letter from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, Plantation Records Key Link to African American Past . She served that family for a long time, perhaps more clues to her past lie in his family roots. Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 - December 5, 1784) Source = Wikimedia. Maria Aparecida Schumaher, Erico teixeira Vital Brazil. In doing slave research in Barbados, I have found one group of enslaved Chase ancestors who were manumitted (freed) and given the last name of the former slave owner. The three databases below provide details of 36,000 trans-Atlantic slave voyages, 10,000 intra-American ventures, names and personal information. And even though slave marriages were not legal, many enslaved people followed the practice of the wife taking her husbands surname: My mother was named Mary Bradley and my father was named Hilliard Bradley. Benson 2006 is one of the few general discussions of slave names. While enslaved almost all had just one Christian name. Now, that parents surname could very well be the surname of the most recent slaveholder or an earlier slaveholder. 77th U.S. Col Inf and Co. D. U.S. Col H Art under the name Lewis Smith which was the name I wore before the days of slavery were over. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Because I like to let formerly enslaved people speak for themselves, here are several examples of freedmen and women discussing their surnames. This is another instance of oral history being a key component in tracing African American ancestry. I am awar eof the different naming traditions practiced in that area and I thank you for sharing them here for my readers. Garcia is the Spanish variation of the word Gerald that means a pointed weapon, like a spear. But once freed most immediately chose surnames, with or without keeping their accustomed name. They are part of Records of the U.S. Customs Service . We had to register as someone, so we could be citizens. Just go to my Vimeo page and make your selection. With mythological names rising, the handsome son of Zeus and god of medicine, music, and poetry among many other things might offer an interesting, if high-pressure, option. This causes many researchers to wrongly conclude that enslaved people did not have surnames until after emancipation, which was not the case. So just a few things to be aware of when researching any African-American ancestors. The surname Williams occurs roughly 550 times per 100,000 people in the U.S. You can find explanations for each of the table columns below, or use the following links to view more last names for different ancestries. Testimony of Mollie Russell (widow of Phillip Fry), September 19, 1911: Q. Nameberry is a registered trademark of Nameberry, LLC. My great grandfather Wilson Percival was born in South Carolina and I believe he took his surname from last slave owners family. One of my grandfathers in Africa was called Jeaceo, and so I decided to be Jackson. Numerous historical sources confirm that enslaved people had surnames that they used among themselves and in many cases were known by their slaveholder. 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. Col. Joshua John Ward of Georgetown, South Carolina: 1,130 Known as "King of the Rice Planters," Ward had 1,130 enslaved Blacks on the Brookgreen plantation in South Carolina. . The majority of these slaves used the surname Lewis instead of Washington. Even worse, during this period, many African Americanssome using surnames for the very first timechanged their surnames once or even several times. A 2nd great grandmother for example was baptised Sarah Charlotte Chase; her mother is recorded as being Ann Lewis Chase. I find it interesting that they often used the strange phrase he calls himself in the ads, as if having a given name and a surname was silly: Ran away from the subscriber on the 25th of October, a well set dark mulattoe man named Jem, but calls himself James Ferguson.. Encyclopedia of North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press. Finding State Laws About Slaves and Free Blacks, More Suggestions for White Slaveholder Descendants, http://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2009/09/calvin-r-yarborough-where-it-all-began.html, http://justthinking130.blogspot.com/2013/11/many-rivers-to-cross-my-priscilla.html, https://www.historicpathways.com/articles.html, http://whitneyplantation.com/the-louisiana-slave-database.html. It starts with a young man falling in love with a girl. These people are referred to as slaves, or as enslaved people. 1. He was sold to my master William Orr and he always went by the name Edward Orr after that.. Chery Meaning: derived from the Latin Cariacus, which means "land belonging to Cariu"; darling Origin: French 5. Surnames like Chantimel have disappeared, while names like Horsford and Ackie, coming from Antigua (where they are common), or Quarless, Dowden, Chandler, and Dottin from Barbados, have enriched Grenada's family history and cultural identity. After the war ended and slavery was abolished, they exercised their freedom by changing their names. 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. And you get to tell the story of Jean-Louiss life in slavery and also in freedom. I was bornthe child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. Entre la construccin de la memoria y la ficcin histrica", "From Africa to India: Music of the Sidis and the Indian Ocean Diaspora (review)", "Mark and Phillis Executions, Burned at the Stake and Gibbeted in Puritan Massachusetts", "Letter from Paul Revere to Jeremy Belknap, circa 1798", "Re: Nancy Titsworth-1800-Livin - Genealogy.com", Association of Muslim Social Scientists & International Institute of Islamic Thought 2008, "Creolizing Natural Liberty: Transnational Obligation in the Thought of Ottobah Cugoano", "Madison and the White House, Through the Memoir of a Slave", "Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South, by Barbara Krauthamer (2013) Not Even Past", "Timeline of Missouri's African American History", "So Tom e Prncipe recorda o Rei Amador", "Black Christian Republicans: Delegates to the 1847 Liberian Constitutional Convention", "A Slave's Service in the Confederate Army", "Slavery and French Cuisine in Jefferson's Working White House", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_slaves&oldid=1140857860, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 03:19. African Americans were known by these surnames in the slave community and often recorded by slave owners on plantation documents. -George Burns, "Where does the family start? If we consider the diverse circumstances that the tragedy of slavery created, we can understand the reasons why. Delva Going back a decade to the 1850 Slave Schedule, both William Wood and Samuel O. Robyn. Although it is not widely known, some African Americans used surnames before they were emancipated. 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). They identified 21 distinctly Black male names, among them biblical classics such as Abraham and Moses, and word names including Freeman and Prince. In my own family history, on my Yarborough side, I believe I have uncovered a pattern that my formerly-enslaved great-grandparents, Calvin and Precilla YARBOROUGH may have used in naming their children. Popular English baby names by decade - 1840s - 1990s 1840s 5 Robert - 53 Margaret - 47 The 1860s first saw the Rimmers' use of 1870s Boys Girls Total registered births - 1,944 1 John - 160 Mary - 151 The 1870s first saw the Rimmers' use of What was the first girl's name in the 1900s? Thanks for your comment, Seating is limited. I dont know what became of his parents. The names that were brought together to form "Geffery" were "Gaufrid" (territory-peace), "Godafrid" (god-peace), and "Galfridus" (song-peace). You can use the links below to view more common surnames. Abel, et al. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name. Many of the graves are unmarked or the markers have been damaged, but many descendents still live around here, so we hope to identify as many of the possible graves as we can. 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. Ones occupation also set the naming method, such as Sheperd, Cooper, or Smith. The following is a list of historical people who were enslaved at some point during their lives, in alphabetical order by first name. By country & year of birth. "Injurious Names: Naming, Disavowal, and Recuperation in Contexts of Slavery and Emancipation." In The Anthropology of Names and Naming. Some last names recognize certain histories or describe important events or narratives that mean a lot to the family. Wide-ranging survey of naming practices in the (mainly Anglophone) Atlantic world both during and after slavery. Here, our list of notable early African American names. Distinctively Black names were thought to have risen from the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, which promoted the use of names with connections to Africa. This may reveal your family used the surname of the slave owners wifes family. I was only three years old when she died. Fortunately, the French and Latin were excellent record keepers and the Catholics were obsessed with knowing the kinship of everyone. After emancipation, he became William Smith. After Emancipation, many former slaves adopted new names and surnames. This reading contains quoted text not authored by Facing History & Ourselves. Minerva is the long-neglected name of the Roman goddess of wisdom and invention, the arts and martial strength, one of the. Through DNA matches, I believe I have recently found a brother of my mothers great grandfather. Dick Lewis Barnett and Phillip Fry were African American veterans of the Union Army during the Civil War. Thats a goal that I am working towards. An accessible introduction to the field. I would still recommend all of these books, except the first one listed for obvious reasons. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Finding Aids for the National Archives at Atlanta, National Archives Catalog (National Archives Identifier 2767350). It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name Lottie, as already explained. Remember me. Many Welsh surnames follow this pattern, with Jones (from 'John's son) being the most common. My surname of SAM originated from Sem or Sam FUSELIER, a free man of color who freed my ancestor,Jean-Louis, out of slavery in 1811. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? Q. By clicking Accept, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. Such resistance signified continual deep-rooted discontent with the condition of bondage and, in some places, such as the United States, resulted in ever-more-stringent mechanisms for social control and repression in slaveholding areas. Sabe, Anque, Bumbo, Jobah, Quamana, Taynay, and Yearie) used in the Slave quarters. Elijah is derived from the Hebrew name Eliyahu, composed of the elements. Q. Smith.). CAs Push to Restore Voting Rights to System-Impacted Individuals Still in Custody, Eli Lilly to Cap Out-of-Pocket Insulin Costs, Asm. 1412 S. Spoede Rd., St. Louis, MO 63131-2557. please contact the History and Genealogy Department. Karen Halttunen, Murder Most Foul, p. 175. I mean, really retro. I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. 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. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one" The poster on each page *provides the link to the handout* for that lecture, so be sure to copy it. In 1870, all of them were listed with the surnames of their last owner; however, each one of them named their sons for one of their brothers. Students consider what it means to be free by learning about the choices and aspirations of freedpeople immediately after Emancipation. The name.Auber.is also.in.Haiti and.is of.French orign. Thank you so much for your kind words. And now that it's been chosen by Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, it could take off as their first son's nameKingstonhas. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), born into slavery in Maryland and escaped to the Northeast in 1838, where he became an internationally renowned abolitionist writer, speaker, and diplomat. Hi Jann, Slavery is a social-economic system under which people are enslaved: deprived of personal freedom and forced to perform labor or services without compensation. An 's' at the end of a personal name also meant 'son of', for example Richards, Stevens, Williams and so on. In instances where slaves were sold from their families and they did not retain their previous owners surnames, they named their children for parents, sisters and brothers to keep a connection with their families. Slavery in America was the legal institution of enslaving human beings, mainly Africans and African Americans. Abara: Originating from the Igbo group of West Africa, Abara means 'spirit'. You are the continuation of each of these people." Wheatley was traded into slavery at the age of 7 or 8 and imported to North America. 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.". LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Brief, but stimulating and thoughtful for students coming new to the subject. 2. Until recently, scholarly consensus was that early African American names did not differ significantly from those of white Americans. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. Letter to James Edward Calhoun, August 27, 1831. Pinckney, Randolph, and Rutledgeappear only incidentally among any list of modern Black peoples names. Search 30 million given names. Q. Along with records from churches,manumission societies, enslavers, and estate settlements, these documents provide a vast pool of data from which to trace patterns and trends from the colonial period through emancipation. Q. 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. CLICK HERE TO SAVE YOUR SEAT! Along with Abraham and Prince, other early African American names currently in the US Top 1000 include Alonzo, Athena, Daphne, Elijah, Isaiah, Israel, King, Phoebe, and Titus. Start your year off with tips and strategies that can help you in the new year & beyond. Caps statement implies that choosing his own surname was a part of exercising his newfound freedom. One thing for sure, historians are always expanding our knowledge on this topic.BTW, I am a big fan of your website and your work in the field! Many of these were names of heroesbut not Lincoln. The brothers were sold when they were very young and remained with their last owners nearly thirty years. Have you visited the Whitney Plantation yet? 13 March 2022, 1-2:30pm [PAST EVENT], Eastern Standard Time: Cant find some of your ancestors in the census? Baby Name Generator. Hi Rodney, Whereas names withAfrican, classical, or other unique origins were popular during enslavement, --- often continuingfrom one generation to the next and creating a distinctive nomenclature unlike that of southern whites -- free black peopleoften used more traditionally Anglicized versions of their first names. Abebe: The genesis of this Ethiopian name is Amharic, and it means 'flower' or 'blossom'. I was called by that name all the time I was with the Morrows. In freedom, Jean-Louis was known as Louis SEM or Louis FUSELIER until finally using SAM. Another slave named Bill who attended the sheep became Bill Shepherd. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. My father would be 105 if he were alive. . My fathers name was Gilbert Jackson, and after I was set free I took the name of my father, and have been known by the name Smith Jackson. My maternal grandmother was an Auber. Gerald, however, is a Germanic name meaning ruler) 2. By the late 19th century, England was home to about 300 surnames with traceable genealogy. Slaves were generally listed with just one name and thus with little to none of the genealogical information recorded for free whites. You are the continuation of each of these people.". Feel free to contact me directly if you have more questions or need some assistance. He took his last enslaver surname. Several of the other slaves were sold to various slave owners. I am the identical person who served in the said companies under the name of Lewis Smith. Thomas: Thomas is a common surname of biblical origin meaning twin. This is true in some cases but not all. If you can identify your ancestor's master, this source will prove of tremendous value to your research. Many enslaved people were allowed to keep their original African names or names assigned them elsewhere (as reflected by the frequency of Spanish and Portuguese names among the first generation of enslaved people in the Carolinas.) 3. They cut it off from OCTAVIA. Robyn. Robyn. Hello But, my mtdna also said I share ancestry with the Kru people of Liberia and the Mende from Sierra Leonne! The Language of Names. 2019 (cited under the Anglophone Caribbean) includes a good general introduction to slave naming. It gives the age and sex of the slave and the number of slaves of each age and sex. The Genealogy Source Table Collection includes 10 blank, editable source tables for death certificates, city directories, obituaries and funeral programs. I have been a researcher, writer, and lecturer for over twenty-five years. I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. In the early years, especially between the 1860 and 1880s, families even changed a surname several times until they settled on a certain one. Although enslavers often assigned names to newly acquired enslaved peoplethat were whimsical, satirical, or condescending in intent, the frequent appearance of classical names-Venus, Cato, Hercules, Bacchus, Pompey-reflect enslavers' own educations and libraries. For personal use and not for further distribution. Place names that were disproportionately popular among Black Americans in history include Boston, Jamaica, York, and Africa. Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, H. A. Shapiro. 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. In the late 1830s, Nathaniel Terry of Todd County, Kentucky died leaving a plantation of fifty slaves. Explore the most common surnames in England. Extensive records of slaveholding over several generations exist for a number of North Carolina plantations, most notably the Skinner and Hayes plantations in Chowan County; Pettigrew plantations in Tyrrell, Washington, and Wake Counties; Bennehan-Cameron plantation in Orange County; Hargrove plantation in Granville County; Arrington plantations in Nash and Edgecombe Counties; Avery plantation in Burke County; and Lenoir plantation in Caldwell County. Are you thinking this woman Eliza Ellis was married to Wash Ellis? Thanks for this very thoughtful article. Dear Robyn, The top 5 most common Hispanic last names from the 1920s are: 1. 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. The association with the infamous Nero, the fiddling Roman emperor, would be unavoidable. Edited by Gabriele vom Bruck and Barbara Bodenhorn, 178199. Renate, 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. Letter to Armistead Burt of September 1, 1831, sfn error: no target: CITEREFCalhoun1837 (. Ho Joanne, Q. What are the most popular last names in the UK? common last names for slaves in the 1800s. In 1801, the British government took the first census for Great Britain and Ireland. Mining the Census: Are You Finding Every Clue? John Lewis was born in 1831; in 1844 he and several family members were given to George A. Washington of Wessyngton. I focused on surnames but many of these books also discuss first names. If the name is spelled Rodrigues, the name is Portuguese but has the same meaning) 3. Well, Ive gone off on a tangent again;) But thank you again for writing and thank you for the cemetery work (especially trying to include African-Americans you are doing that will be of benefit to others. In 2001, I began a process of transcribing names of some of the largest slaveholders and matching the surnames with numbers of African Americans on the 1870 . This event is $12. Genealogy becomes so much more than just names and dates, it really feels like a true passion indeed. Please share, in the comments below, examplesyou have come across of the surnames of enslaved people, especially if it was different from their last slaveholder. A valuable and incisive discussion, both theoretically and historically informed, of slave naming in two African societies, the Caribbean, and the American South. Bradley was the last man owned em. . Register now! 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. 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. Surnames. I am searching for information about a woman named Eliza Ellis, from Versailles KY or that area. Most did not want to use their former owners surname, even through about 20% did use the slave owners name. Davis: This name is a patronymic of David. This old French surname has Germanic origin, and means 'noble'. 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! 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. I am the identical person who was named called and known as Dick Lewis Smith before the Civil War and during the Civil War and until I returned home after my military service . by John C. Inscoe, 2006; Revised May 2022 by NC Government & Heritage Library. One former slave Bill Scott from Wessyngton reported in his pension application for military service that when he enlisted in the Union Army officials put down his surname as Washington. 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. I also meant to email you and tell you how I enjoyed your article in the last NGSQ. 41. 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). . 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. Although it is not widely known, some African Americans used surnames before they were emancipated. Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made (1974). This lifelong quest has helped me to better know my familys past. The most common origin for surnames is that enslaved people initially used the surname of either their mother or their father, if they knew what those names were. . Rank. This is common. They established and held on to their own cultural traditions in the small spaces that slavery afforded them. A Wessyngton slave named Bill who was the plantations blacksmith was known as Billy the Smith during slavery. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Wonderful to have first hand account that help shine light on the attitudes of our ancestors. Women tended to have two names, and slaves often just had one. Slavery's reach is still with us, and part of the gift of doing African-American genealogy, "The past is not dead. "The past is not dead. According to the latest search data available, Italian last names and their meanings are searched for nearly, 40,500 times per month. The naming of slaves has not been treated in dedicated monographs, but it often figures in general accounts of plantation culture and the practices of enslavement. After emancipation, they all used the Terry surname because their families had been with the white Terry family for generations. My great great grandfather in Mississippi took the surname of the previous SC enslaver, whose widow sold him away. Former slaves often made up surnames based on their occupations. I communicate with them on Facebook. Anouilh. ", "Families are like fudge; mostly sweet with a few nuts. The new surnames, usually not taken from a former slave owner, included: Williams, Jones, Johnson, Smith, Jackson, Thomas, Brown, Walker, Davis, Green, Robinson, Scott, Harris, Turner, and Anderson. Some of them developed a long-term relationship with one of the female slaves. The same family may appear with different surnames in the 1870 and 1880 federal census records, and may appear in other records with either, both, or a third surname altogether. As a result, many slaves used the surnames of their owners wifes family. I presume no death certificate for her survives? Garcia (The Spanish form of Gerald, Garcia would be the son of Gerald. They called me "OCK". 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. Slaves are identified by given name under their masters. Can you steer me in the right direction? . Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. In addition to time and place, a likely variable is whether the birth rate, in a severely overworked and maltreated population, was sufficient to ensure a relatively stable population over several generations, or whether the high mortality associated with slavery led to declining numbers and hence to the frequent acquisition of new slaves. In the context of The Bahamas, the surname appears to originate with Denys Rolle, an American Loyalist who re-settled on Exuma, one of the so-called Out Islands of The Bahamas, sometime in the mid-1780s.