Saturday, October 24, 2009

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Most Unique Ancestral Name

Hey, genealogy fans - it's Saturday Night - time for more Genealogy Fun!

In honor of Surname Saturday (the new, official genealogy blogging prompt for Saturdays), let's consider this, assuming you accept the challenge to play along (is it Mission Impossible?):

1) What is the most unique, strangest or funniest combination of given name and last name in your ancestry? Not in your database - in your ancestry.

2) Tell us about this person in a blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a comment on Facebook.

3) Okay, if you don't have a really good one - how about a sibling of your direct ancestors?

Here's mine:

I actually had a hard time choosing one person, because it seems like almost all of my colonial ancestors had good, common, English sounding names. Some of the German names are a bit interesting, so I chose:

Johann Balthazar Pickel (1687-1765). He was christened on 2 September 1687 in Bad Durkheim, Pfalz Bayern, Germany, as the son of Hans Balthazar Bickel and his wife Anna Eva; the sponsors names are unreadable in the record. He died on 5 December 1765 in Oldwick, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Johann Balthazar Pickel and Anna Gertrude Reiterin were married on 16 August 1718 in the Lutheran Church on Staten Island, New York, by Rev. Rosscher, recorded by Rev. Justus Falckner. Anna Gertrude Reiterin was born in 1694 in Germany, and died on 4 December 1761 in Oldwick, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.

Early services of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hunterdon County, New Jersey were held in the home of Baltus Pickel. He built at his own expense the Racheway Church (located today at Potterstown) in 1729 and the Leslysland Church about 1735. In 1749, when the Zion Lutheran Church was built at Oldwick, Baltes Pickel contributed money to its constructiion. In his will of 1765 he bequeathed the Zion church 1000 pounds.

Genealogy friends used to tease me by saying "you know, if your ancestor Henry Pickel had married Elizabeth Dill, then she would have been Elizabeth (Dill) Pickel." Now that would have been funny!

16 comments:

Martin said...

http://mhollick.typepad.com/slovakyankee/2009/10/sngf-unusual-ancestral-name.html

Barbara Poole said...

http://lifefromtheroots.blogspot.com/2009/10/my-scrambled-eggs.html
"My Scrambled Eggs"

Martin said...

I also want to add that I was good. I think of genealogy as a "family" thing and rated G. However, I have a host of racy names I could have used (for the PG and R crowds). Next time you have a SNGF around this topic, please let us know the level of appropriateness.

Carol said...

Shoot, flunked it, but still published something.

http://www.reflectionsfromthefence.com/2009/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-most.html

Jane said...

How about this for "unique" names --
Sven Svensson, Per Persson, Nils Nilsson, Lars Larsson and Ola Olsson. Only one each in MY family, but....

Travis LeMaster said...

http://tjlgenes.blogspot.com/2009/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-most.html

Abba-Dad said...

Sarah Whitehead Battle Carter Tuggle is not such a unique name, but how we ended up with it is pretty special:

http://dream-of-genea.blogspot.com/2009/10/sngf-unique-ancestral-name.html

tami osmer glatz said...

One of my favorite grandfathers a ways back is Rollin Forward. And then there's a grandmother about 5 gen's back who is Thankful Day - gotta love that one! -tami

Mel said...

I've written about my Great Great Grandfather, Jozimas de Braga, whose name was one of a kind.
http://www.researchjournal.yourislandroutes.com/2009/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-most-unique-ancestral-name/

BeNotForgot said...

Stop by for a visit at benotforgot.com and let me introduce you to my Grandfather Frost who is also a grandpa to the poet, Robert Frost.

Mavis said...

I'm a day late, again. Mine is Your Most Unique Ancestral Name - SNGF Challenge.

Dr. Bill (William L.) Smith said...

Also a day late, just saw the challenge, and wanted to post!

http://drbilltellsancestorstories.blogspot.com/2009/10/surname-saturday-blog-entry.html

One of the fifteen children is my 3rd great-grandmother! ;-)

rozek19 said...
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rozek19 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rozek19 said...

http://blog.mrog.org/541/nietypowe-imiona-i-nazwiska (in Polish language)

Kay Haden said...

Randy - I can't believe it. I've been out of town and just catching up on the blog posts. Johann Balthazaar Pickel and Anna Gertrude Reiterin were my 7th great-grandparents. We must be cousins.
khaden