by Sharon Hall | Jan 16, 2015 | Surname Saturday
These surnames emanate from different parts of Scotland, but all are rooted in the personal name Payne. The Old English word “payn” was a name given to a villager or someone who lived in the country. According to House of Names, the west coast of Scotland and the...
by Sharon Hall | Jan 13, 2015 | Tombstone Tuesday
Iredel Wright was born to parents Henry Monroe and Rebecca (Cordell) Wright in December of 1859, according to the 1860 Census, this despite the fact that his tombstone reads December 12, 1860. According to family historians, Henry who was born in 1826 had been...
by Sharon Hall | Jan 12, 2015 | Motoring History
Granted, the record didn’t last for long, but on this day in 1904 Henry Ford set a land speed record on the frozen surface of Lake St. Clair in Michigan. After founding the Detroit Automobile Company in August of 1899, only to have it go under by January 1901, Henry...
by Sharon Hall | Jan 10, 2015 | Surname Saturday
This English surname is occupational, an official one for a steward or bailiff. According to House of Names, the name can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain, and one that was given to the member of a family who “worked as a local representative of a...
by Sharon Hall | Jan 7, 2015 | Ghost Town Wednesday
This ghost town in Young County, Texas was named after a part-time Methodist minister and storekeeper from Tennessee, Robert S. Proffitt, who migrated to Hood County, Texas in 1852 and then moved to Young County in the early 1860’s. Robert and his sons were...
