Examining Middle Names for Clues

 

 Early on in my genealogy research I discovered a middle name could be a mother's maiden name. My great-grandfather William Wray Forgey's middle name was his mother Elizabeth's maiden name. His aunt Polly Thurman Wray was given her paternal grandmother's maiden name as her middle name. After these early discoveries I looked at middle names very carefully for clues to their origins. 

William Wray Forgey's maternal grandmother Sarah Campbell-Wray's family is a brickwall for me. We don't know who her parents were? She was born about 1812, possibly in Tennessee.  According to some posted family trees her full name was Sarah Cloud O'Briant Campbell. I've been looking at these middle names to see if they might provide clues? I've looked for those names in the area of Indiana she married and lived in. Those names haven't pointed to any solution to who her parents, or even siblings were. I haven't even found the source of those middle names. 

Sarah's daughters' middle names appear in a family bible and other documents. Polly Thurman Wray is confirmed to have her maternal grandmother's maiden name, but her other daughters' middle names are a mystery. One daughter was given the middle name Temple and another daughter Willington. I haven't been able to connect any of these names with my Indiana family. A son was given the name Harrison as a middle name, and that surname belonged to an uncle through marriage, on the Wray side. 

My ancestor Elizabeth Wray's middle name was Jane. Often family first names are recycled as middle names. Jane could have been a relative of Sarah Campbell? 

Researching deeds I found a James Trigg Campbell. He appears to have a relationship with the Wray family living near them, and trading land with the family. James Campbell isn't an uncommon name, but I felt like the middle name Trigg could point me in the right direction, as middle names had in my past research. Sadly, no.

When I visited a Lynchburg cemetery during the summer I noticed a tombstone with the middle name Trigg on it. Possibly Trigg was a middle name used in the past without any significance? 

I visited the historic house Sandusky in Lynchburg, Virginia which was once owned by an Otey family. That name was used as a middle name by some of our Wray distant cousins. I told the historian at the house my relatives used Otey as a middle name and wondered if they were related? He said sometimes middle names were just names of neighbors. Middle names could be a clue to where the family lived, but may be the name of a relative.

 

Middle names are sometimes added to ancestors' names by people researching their family trees. The fact the name Oat has been added to my ancestor Benjamin Wray's name is a pet peeve of mine. I have found no documents with the middle name Oat, yet most online trees state his name is Benjamin Oat Wray. In 1757, when the older Benjamin was born, middle names were uncommon. There was a Benjamin Oat Wray who was a descendant of Benjamin. This man has a death certificate and lived in an era when middle names became more common. There was another descendant of Benjamin named James Oat Wray. Maybe someday we'll find out the significance of the name Oat? It's a mystery so far. 

Middle initials can be important when it comes to identifying men with the same first and last names living in the same area. The middle initial D was added to my ancestor James Owens name to set him apart from other James Owens living in the same county. That initial led me to accurately identify him in his father's estate settlement resolving a brickwall. 

Other times family tree researchers have added middle initials. This can happen when a name was abbreviated with the last letter of the abbreviation being written in superscript (raised above the text). In one case the middle initial A was added to one of the Benjamin Wray's names. Actually that was part of the abbreviation of the name. Benja was an abbreviation commonly used in the past. 

Once a wrong middle initial or middle name has been added to an ancestor's name it's nearly impossible to correct. It just keeps getting recopied. 

We have relatives who use Washington as a middle name, as a tribute to their hero George Washington. No clues there. Sometimes the middle name comes from a person someone admires. 

Sometimes middle names have been useful in confirming relationships and sometimes they are a total mystery. Maybe some day some of these mystery middle names will lead to solving a brickwall.