The slave schedules of 1860 Arkansas do not give the names of the slaves. -Unknown, "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city;)" Samuel had only two slaves: the man that could be Wilson and a 42-year-old woman. If the name is spelled Rodrigues, the name is Portuguese but has the same meaning) 3. 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. State of residence is Missouri unless otherwise noted. ", "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city;)", "Where does the family start? Facing History & Ourselves uses lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate. Even that feels like something. I was bornthe child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. . However, a small change to searching on C?lbert, which accounts for the variations in spelling expands that initial list to 877 enslaved people owned by people with those names. It comes from the same Greek root as 'ambrosia', the food of the gods, said to confer immortality. 44. Explore the most common surnames in England. Also included here are common names among slaves, many of which were classical and had ties to the Bible or mythology, such as Keziah and Venus. As a result, many slaves used the surnames of their owners wifes family. common last names for slaves in the 1800s. Derived from the word anull that is the Catalan language dominantly used in southern France, Anouilh means 'slow worm'. Slaves were generally listed with just one name and thus with little to none of the genealogical information recorded for free whites. It was after emancipation on that I went back to work for Col. Morrow and where I got the name "Lottie," as already explained. 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. - Jane Howard, "Friends are God's apologies for relations." David Nicolle, Graham Turner: Poitiers AD 732: Charles Martel Turns the Islamic Tide. Robyn. You already know the rich historical terrain of FPOC in Louisiana, what terrific grounds for family research. There are 15 tables, blank and editable for you to populate, as well as samples of using each. Robyn. I'll illustrate transcribing deeds, show you how to find your county deed records on FamilySearch, and you will receive my PDF Beginner's Guide to Using Deed Records, a $12 value! Surnames (not always those of former owners) would then be adopted as family names by former slaves and their descendants. Q. Students consider how US history books, films, and other works of popular culture have misrepresented the history of the Reconstruction era. LOTTIE had been the name of the nurse before me and so they just continued that same name. Percy is an adorable old name that is finally shedding its pampered Little Lord Fauntleroy image in this new era of boys with soft yet traditionally, Titus, once seen as a slightly forbidding Roman, New Testament, and Shakespearean name, was brought back to contemporary life in the USA by the TV series, French surname from place name Perci-en-Auge, Latin, meaning unknown, possibly "title of honour". Perhaps Wash Ellis registered under the name of one of his parents. This event is $20. Mining the Census: Are You Finding Every Clue? Places; Login. You can also look up Charleston Manifests by Slave Owner These records are also available through the National Archives Catalog (National Archives Identifier 2767350). Wide-ranging survey of naming practices in the (mainly Anglophone) Atlantic world both during and after slavery. 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. A 2nd great grandmother for example was baptised Sarah Charlotte Chase; her mother is recorded as being Ann Lewis Chase. But, my mtdna also said I share ancestry with the Kru people of Liberia and the Mende from Sierra Leonne! Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Caps statement implies that choosing his own surname was a part of exercising his newfound freedom. Another slave named Bill who attended the sheep became Bill Shepherd. 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. Phillis Wheatley (May 8, 1753 - December 5, 1784) Source = Wikimedia. I was born in Montgomery County, Ala. the child of Phillis Houston, slave of Sol Smith. Ebba: One of the more unique girl names from the 1800s. 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. 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. 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. Baby Name Generator. They were Nelson Nunn and George Nunn and they may have changed their names to Crosby too because they were my fathers children.. Going back a decade to the 1850 Slave Schedule, both William Wood and Samuel O. Robyn N. Smith, [insert post title], Reclaiming Kin (https://reclaimingkin.com: accessed [insert date you read the post]), [insert the date the post was written]. 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. This is another instance of oral history being a key component in tracing African American ancestry. African Americans were known by these surnames in the slave community and often recorded by slave owners on plantation documents. In the early years, especially between the 1860 and 1880s, families even changed a surname several times until they settled on a certain one. See flier for details; cost of this event is $25. Q. You should give a TED talk! Some of these examples come from the wonderful book, Voices of Emancipation: I served [in the War] as Henry Lock, the Lock being my old Massas name but since the War I have taken name of Rollie., [Edward] was owned by Drury Stovall and went by the name of Edward Stovall. I hope this post also helps us to think about how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. Names. Currently, the most popular Black last name in America is Williams, with a total count of 774,920 people who have the surname. So far Ive found no one who can give me any information about how these people assumed the Culbert surname. Use the form below to get in touch with me and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Slaveholders often renamed newly acquired slaves; but self-naming by slaves, which also occurred, is likely to be underreported in the records, which were mainly created by and for slaveholders. See flier here. There are issues, too, about how to interpret the recorded names, which have been classified in different ways depending on researchers interests. On another branch, members of the Griffin family from around Campbell County VA all stuck together and are believed to have kept family bonds & name of their father after Emancipation. Hi Jann, All children of a female slave were automatically slaves, considered as belonging to the owner of the mother. On Anglican (Church of England) baptisms records the child legally and officially is documented with the surname of the mother if she and the father were not married. But the bureau also compiled lists of the fastest-growing surnames in the United States and these include Zhang, Li, Ali, Liu, and Khan - a testament to the wonderful diversity of our nation. 2. 19. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, Finding Aids for the National Archives at Atlanta, National Archives Catalog (National Archives Identifier 2767350). I make extensive use of tables for organization, analysis and citation in my research, and they have proven very popular with genealogists. There are a wide array of sources that provide us with slave surnames, from the slave narratives and interviews, to freedmans bank cards, runaway ads and Southern Claims Commission records. Also largely unrecorded are the alternative names the enslaved used among themselves, sometimes called country names or basket names; they may also, according to African practice, have had multiple names over a lifetime. This financial assistance was available to all Civil War veterans and their families. -Hugh Kingsmill, "No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?" -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." ", "Call it a clan, call it a network, all it a tribe, call it a family. Recognizable patterns of change in names and naming practices are evident from the mid-eighteenth century to the early nineteenth century and on through the 1860s. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. After emancipation, he became William Smith. Abel, et al. Maria Aparecida Schumaher, Erico teixeira Vital Brazil. They cut it off from OCTAVIA. Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on It means 'raven'. This event is $12. 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 . Ethereal and delicate, Cassandra was in the Top 70 throughout the 1990s but is now descending in popularity. The population was more than 16 million and the industrial revolution was under way, which debunks any perception of a broadly colonial society. In French-speaking Louisiana, Slave names reflected the dominant language and thus were generally different from those in the English colonies. 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.) Thank you so much for your kind words. Several names have been added under the letter representing the person's last name. I am not able to find any slaveholders in the Versailes area by the name of Ellis. Robyn. 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. Testimony of Dick Lewis Barnett, May 17, 1911: I am 65 years of age; my post office address is Okmulgee Okla. Thanks LaBrenda! Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. how the surnames former slaves had were connected to their experiences in slavery. Leo (M) (Russian origin) means "lion". Instead a wide variety of surnames came about that would be the family name for future generations. Former slaves often made up surnames based on their occupations. In many cases this is ignored and children use their fathers name! Index by slave owner's name | Surname unknown or illegible. In the late 1830s, Nathaniel Terry of Todd County, Kentucky died leaving a plantation of fifty slaves. This is common. Thank you for commenting, and continued luck to you in your research. I especially recommend Mother, Thy Name is Mystery! . There are many factors to consider in determining what surnames African Americans used. Facing History & Ourselves, "Changing Names," last updated May 12, 2020. It means 'bought land'. 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. Others who wanted no connection to their former owners used surnames like Freeman or Freedman. 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. > | Index main page>| Index by slave owner's name, Index to "Descriptive Recruitment Lists of Volunteers for the United States Colored Troops for the State of Missouri, 1863-1865"(NARA Microfilm Publication M1894 - 6 rolls). You can read about this in the following two posts on my blog. Bradley was the last man owned em. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one", "Friends are God's apologies for relations. 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. 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. 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. They identified 21 distinctly Black male names, among them biblical classics such as Abraham and Moses, and word names including Freeman and Prince. College, Advanced AA Gen Class, September 2011, AAHGS Annual Genealogy Conference, November 2008, Howard Comm. Special slave censuses were kept in the early 1800s. Famous name bearers: many King Louis of France, Sandra Bullock's son and actor Louis Partridge. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. Wonderful to have first hand account that help shine light on the attitudes of our ancestors. A. Mr. Thomas Jefferson of Louisville, bought me when I was three years of age from Mr. Dearing. And you get to tell the story of Jean-Louiss life in slavery and also in freedom. 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. Once the slaves were freed they found they did need another name besides a given name. They were all sold to different owners: Connell, Rose, Johnson, and Hughes respectively. Jonah, the name of the Old Testament prophet who was swallowed by the whale, only to emerge unharmed three days later, is increasingly appreciated by parents looking for a biblical name less common than Jacob or Joshua, yet not too obscure. 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! 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. Post Author: Post published: 18 avril 2022; Post Category: . 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. She served that family for a long time, perhaps more clues to her past lie in his family roots. By the late 19th century, England was home to about 300 surnames with traceable genealogy. Q. If a surname was needed, the slave owners family name might be used. Following the emancipation of approximately 360,000 enslaved people in North Carolina, changes in African American names became indicative of a new value system and sense of self-identity among freedpeople. Thanks for your comment, Unique Surnames to Grenada. Students learn about the violent responses to the transformation of US democracy that occurred as a result of Radical Reconstruction. Although it is not widely known, some African Americans used surnames before they were emancipated. Q. Were there any famous slaves? Email:genealogy@slcl.org Just from the detail in your first comment, I knew there was a good chance you were already familiar with those authors. Drawing on extensive archival records, this digital memorial allows analysis of the ships, traders, and captives in the Atlantic slave trade. 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. I found in the Civil War registry, an enslaved man who enrolled in the infantry under the name of Wash Ellis. Tell me the name you were called before you met Phillip Fry? Several of the other slaves were sold to various slave owners. Besides the Morrows, whom else did you live with in Louisville? I think mostly about family separationas a mother now myself, the very idea that my dear child could be sold to who knows where, never to be seen again..just reduces me to tears anytime. 26 September 2021 [PAST EVENT]: Acclaimed genealogist Melvin Collier and I will be presenting an all-new 2-hour lecture titled More Than Just Names: Incorporating Social and Community History Into Your Research from 1:00-3:30 EST (please note it is Eastern Standard Time). 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. . The names that were brought together to form "Geffery" were "Gaufrid" (territory-peace), "Godafrid" (god-peace), and "Galfridus" (song-peace). 43. If we consider the diverse circumstances that the tragedy of slavery created, we can understand the reasons why. It is from this myth that the plant genus, Phoebe is the Latin variation of the Greek name Phoibe, which derived from. 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. Hi Pat, Claudia Bautista,Santa Monica, Calif. You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form. i did a simple search of the 1860 slave schedule using the name Culbert and came up with slaveholders in MS,VA,NC,AL,GA and SC holding 17 enslaved people. A Wessyngton slave named Bill who was the plantations blacksmith was known as Billy the Smith during slavery. 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. 3. Tell me the name you were called before you met Phillip Fry?
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