Wordless Wednesday - 15 July 2009

Surnames and Lots of Other Places that aren't Rehoboth, Mass.

In my last posting I listed out all my surnames that originated (at least once they moved to America) in Rehoboth, MA. One day soon I'd like to visit that town.

Anyway, so below is a list of my other surnames, I like to think of them as "Not-from-Rehoboth-Surnames":

AKINS - the farthest back I have them is the 1800s in Lockwood, NY. They are a brick wall for me.

BROWN - first lived in Swansea, Mass, don't have much on them at all, the name comes from a wife

CHURCHILL - first lived in Wethersfield, CT. Lots of old genealogies try to link my Josiah Churchill to the famous Churchill family but I'm not buying it

COLLINS - first lived in Boston, then moved to Walllingford, CT, came from Herford, England

DOMELLE - immigrated in the 20th century from what was NagyOsz, Hungary (now in Romania) and moved to Lake Village, Indiana

ENSIGN - first lived in Hartford, CT. Some old genealogies try to prove a link to nobility with this one, but again, I'm not buying it.

FIENES - this was a maiden name for the mom of the wife of the first Bliss of mine that came over. Family was from Maiden Newton, Dorset, England

FOOTE - lived in Wethersfield, CT, came from Shalford, Essex, England and Royston, Hertfordshire, England

GEORGE - lived in Braintree, Norfolk, Massachusetts, have little because it was a wife

GIBBS - 1800s in Waterloo, Seneca Co, NY, have little because it was a maiden name

KINGSBURY - another maiden name of a family that first came over, they came from Dedham, Norfolk, England, but that's all I have right now

KIRBY - lots of brick walls in NY in the 1800s - another maiden name in Waterloo, Seneca, NY that comes from who knows where

LYNN - darn those maiden names, it's so hard to prove who the parents were in so many cases! This one was in Connecticut.

MIX - originall in New Haven, CT, then moved to Wallingford, CT, then NY - the cause of all my mysterious maiden names in NY. I know the first Mix came from London, but that's it.

OBENDORFER - married to the Domelle above, so was in Lake Village, Indiana. all I know is that she said she was born in Vienna and that's it!

ROCKWELL - lived in Windsor, CT, came supposedly from Fitzhead, Somerset, England

ROYCE - lived in New London, CT, came suppsedly from Martok, Somerset, England

STEVENS - another maiden name who married a Mix, I got nothing - 1800s in Greene, Chenango County, NY

TROWBRIDGE - lived in Boston, New Haven, CT, Branford, CT. Supposedly came from Devonshire, England

TURNER - like the Mix, I only know he came from London. First lived in Lynn, Massachusetss, then founded New Haven, CT

WHEATLIE - a maiden name of one who came over - is supposed to be from Maiden Newton, Dorset, England


And those are all my surnames to the point of emigration or immigration, whatever you want to call it!!

Surnames and Rehoboth, Massachusetts

I can't keep track of anything anymore (did I ever, or did I just imagine it?) - so I have all these spreadsheets all over the place, for genealogy, for bills, for work. It's not that I'm some kind of excel guru, I don't do all the fancy stuff, it's basically just lists. I like lists, and excel is really good for lists.

So this particular list is my direct line surnames and their place of origin in my records - in other words, what town did they originally inhabit in the US and the originating country?

If I could figure out a way to import excel into my blog, I'd do that, but none of these cute little buttons up top here in blogger.com look like they do that for me, and let's just not even go to the little edit html tab. I can do word or line formatting in html, but there's no way I can format me up a table. I'll put that on my list of things to learn!

Anyway, I have a bunch of families who first lived in Rehoboth Massachusetts, we're talking 1600s here. On my mom's side, most of the families were early New Englanders.

I must disclaim at this point - some of the originating towns in England/Wales etc. are conjecture as far as I am concerned. There's all those great genealogy books from the late 19th century and I love them to pieces for the great lists of descendents in America; but some of them you just have to take with a grain of salt when they go back to England or Scotland because a lot of them were really just trying to prove links to nobility that didn't exist.

And so, my ancestors who came to America in the 1600s and first lived in Rehoboth, Massachusetts (or almost first lived there):

BLISS - first lived in Rehoboth, came from Northampton England, either Daventry or Preston Parva

BOSWORTH - first lived in Rehoboth, came from Hingham, Norfolk, England

BOWEN - first lived in Rehoboth, came from Ilston, Glamorganshire, Wales

COOPER - first lived in Hingham, Masschusetts, moved to Rehoboth, came from Hingham, Norfolk, England

DAGGETT - first lived in Rehoboth, not sure where they came from yet

IDE - first lived in Rehoboth, my line moved to Clarendon Vermont, came from Ide, Devon, England

KENT - first lived in Taunton Masschusetts, then Swansea, Masschusetts, then Rehoboth, not sure where they came from yet

PECK - first lived in Hingham, Massachusetts, moved to Rehoboth, came from Beccles, Suffolk and Hingham, Norfolk, England

PERRY - lived in Rehoboth, not sure where they came from yet

SMITH - lived in Rehoboth, not sure where they came from yet


I just re-discovered the Daggetts the other day and found an awesome book online. Amazing that I can forget about a direct line surname for years. It's the Problem Of The Wives, darn name changes.

"Gimme a whiskey with ginger ale on the side and don't be stingy, baby."

So yeah, I adopted a cat. My current cat, NooNoo, needs a companion. Not that she would admit it, she's far too regal for that, as her re-enactment of the Princess and the Pea here shows. She's 10 years old (as of saturday) and her companion of several years passed away last fall. I tried bringing home a new friend for her in December and it was an Utter Disaster. His name was Angel and he loved more than anything to chase NooNoo. She spent most of her life living on the fridge. It broke my heart, but I couldn't keep him, it just wasn't right to torture NooNoo like that.

But she's spent her entire life living with other cats (whether she cared for them or not) and I could tell she was a little lost. I had actually broken down and gone to the local Pet Smart to buy a collar and leash with some vague idea that we could go outside together (she wants to be an outside cat REAL BAD, but unfortunately, her previous owner had her declawed). I wasn't sure how it was going to work because I couldn't imagine getting the collar thingy on her, and it would probably be some horribly ending discussion where the collar somehow ended up being on me. Then I noticed they had strays....so I wandered over and was reading the descriptions really carefully. I needed a cat that was good with other cats and not aggressive at all.

See, NooNoo is little, I guess she was the runt of the litter, or else she just has petite genes. She's 4 pounds soaking wet, not that I've ever seen her soaking wet... Where, O Universe, are my petite genes???? I must have eaten them...! :-D

Anyway, I had had a passing idea that I would adopt a kitten (the only thing littler than NooNoo) and even applied to a local rescue society (which shall go un-named). The lady who talked to me was much more interested in judging me in how I had handled the Angel situation (why didn't I isolate him and foster him until he could be adopted, had I followed up on whether he was adopted, did I realize that since I hadn't kept him, he was probably put down). Thanks lady, like I didn't go through enough soul-searching and guilt over how to handle that situation. Needless to say I withdrew my application from that society and felt like crap. Once I realized she was the jerk, not me, I got over it.

After a lot of petting and pondering at the Pet Smart, I determined there was a likely candidate in a female black and white cat named Greta. I wonder what the person who named her was thinking about, Garbo seems too easy, but that's the only Greta I know. They said she was found "living under the porch of a preacher's house" in Marcus Hook (I feel like there's a song in there somewhere, and I suddenly have an inclination to watch quentin tarantino movies now...).

And so, one reviewed application and long discussion with the ladies at the rescue operation later, I have a new kitty.

She's living in my master bedroom for now, which is a HUGE pain in the butt, but I am not rushing this introduction at all. She seems fine to be living in there right now, she's not trying to get out the door or anything, so the intro will happen when I feel it's right.

I wanted to post some nice pictures of her, but this darn cat does not sit still when there's a camera in the room! She's a lot like my nephew Jack, there are a lot of pictures of the back of his head floating around, for instance:











So, you will have to trust me, she does have two yellow eyes, a nose and mouth, and she loves nothing more than to be petted and to shed all over (I was smart enough to get a black and white cat so no matter what I wore, the fur would show up). She's a sweetie and so far hasn't demonstrated any aggressive behaviour at all. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!!

Wordless Wednesday - 01 July 2009