Uncommon Names in the Raney/Rainey Family

Lena Mildred Bass (b. 1908 IN), our 1st cousin, 2x removed, granddaughter of Whitman Hill Dyson

I've been researching on Ancestry for three years now, fascinated by unusual first names in our lineage and in the ascents of others, so  I've decided to compile a baby book of names with a working title, Nontraditional American Baby Names - 1620 to 1925. I might use the photograph of Lena Mildred above for the cover. In that vein, I'll remind you of names our direct ancestors chose for their children, popular at the time, but no longer. 

Our 2nd great-grandfather Rainey was named Everett (b. 1844 KY). His mother's name, given as Millie Roberts (b. c1808 KY) on her marriage license in Pulaski Co., and on most censuses, on one occasion was listed as Milla, which might have been her actual name.  Our 5th great-grandfather Parham was named Ephraim (b. 1723 VA), common in its day. His middle name was Stith, his mother Ann's surname. In those days the mother's or grandmother's surname often passed down as a middle or first name. Ann's father was Drury Stith (b. 1670 VA), our 7th great-grandfather. His mother may have been a Drury. Our 8th great-grandfather was Launcelot Bathurst (b. 1642 England).

Ephraim Parham's wife was our 5th great-grandmother, Lucretia Sturdivant (b. 1743). Not an unusual name for the time, but I've wondered how the name of a daughter of a Borgia pope, who poisoned family enemies, became popular in America in the early 18th century. Lucretia's 2nd great-grandfather, and our 9th, was Hezekiah Bunnill (b. 1623 VA), again, a popular name of its time.

Zachariah Cross tombstone

Turning to the Dougan side, our 5th great-grandfather, was the Revolutionary War soldier, Zachariah Cross (b. 1761 MD). That name had been popular in America since the first English settlers arrived. 

Revolutionary War soldiers who were buried in White County, Illinois

Zachariah's grandmother, our 7th great-grandmother, was Dinah Lane Tracy (1695 MD). Her father's name was Teague Thomas Tracy (b. 1674 England). A 6th great-grandfather named Matthias Gabbardt was born in 1720 in Schwaigern, Baden-Württemberg, so the spelling isn't unusual.
 

Whitman Hill Dyson

On the Dyson side, our 2nd great-grandfather was Whitman Hill Dyson (b.1836 IN). Whitman is the only name that has descended in our family - Frank Whitman Raney (b 1888 IN) and his son Paul Whitman Raney (b. 1913 KS). It would be nice if someone continued that family tradition. Whitman Hill Dyson's grandfather was Bennet Dyson (b. 1768 MD), and his father was Maddox Dyson (b. 1744 MD), our 5th great-grandfather, named for his mother Mary Ann Maddox. Mary Ann's father was Benjamin, and her grandfather, our 8th great-grandfather, was Cornelius Maddox (b. 1661 England). A 9th great-grandmother, born in England about 1640, who came to Maryland, was Hesther Evans. On the Julian side (Alice Julian was Whitman Hill Dyson's mother, our 5th great-grandfather, born in 1754 in North Carolina, was Claiborne Condrey, also his father's name, one of our French Huguenot lines. On Alice's other French Protestant line, Rene and his father Pierre didn't have unusual names, but Pierre's wife was Damaris LeSerur, our 8th great-grandmother, born in France.

Whitman Hill Dyson's wife was Elizabeth "Ella" Turpin (b. 1841 IN).  Her father was Moses Turpin (b. 1812 KY) and his father, our 4th great-grandfather, was Moses Hosea Turpin (b. 1782 VA). Moses Hosea's father was another Moses, and his wife was Magdelene Black (b.1760 VA). The name Magdalene is found in present-day  Catholic families. The young woman who cleans my house is a Magdalene Marie. Our 6th and 7th great-grandfathers were both Solomon Turpins (b. 1723 and 1673 in Maryland), common names of their time. Olive Eaton (b. 1620 England), the older Solomon's grandmother and our 9th  great-grandmother, possessed a name given to both girls and boys in the 17th and 18th centuries. The cartoon Popeye has ruined the name for the present. On the elder Solomon's mother's side, his great-grandfather was Ambrose Dixon (b. 1623 England), who emigrated to Maryland). Still ascending from Ella Turpin is her grandfather Elijah Utterback (b. 1776 VA), our 4th great-grandfather. His father was Jacob and his grandfather Harmon Utterback (b. 1724 VA), an Anglicized Hermann. The Utterback family, originally Otterbach, emigrated from Trupbach, Siegan-Wittgenstein, North Rhine-Westphalia in 1713 to Virginia, part of a group of twelve German families, who established the first German community in America - known as Germantown, of course. And those are our direct line uncommon names so far.
We have collateral relatives with great names, too. An example is
Forest Lynn Elkins (b. 1889 TX) and her sister Kitta Belle Elkins (b. 1888 TX) 2nd cousins 3x removed. Their mother was Ollie Tennessee Rainey, our 1st cousin, 4x removed, daughter of our 3rd great-grandfather James' brother, John Rainey.

For an appropriate ending, I've picked Ya'll Come, recorded by Bill Munroe in 1954.  HERE

                                        In Memoriam

I've learned that we lost our cousin Sharon Marie "Sherri" Charbonneau from a heart attack on Thursday, December 12, 2019. Daughter of Mary Agnes Raney Charbonneau and Omer "Red" Charbonneau, she was the youngest of the female cousins in the Raney family. This is her senior photo at Gonzaga Prep, Spokane, in 1976.