by Sharon Hall | Mar 15, 2014 | Surname Saturday
Some of the earliest records of this surname (pronounced EYE-sham) occurred in eleventh century England. There are two Isham families that settled in the Colonies, one in Massachusetts and one in Virginia. The families migrated from Northamptonshire in England,...
by Sharon Hall | Mar 12, 2014 | Digging History Magazine, Ghost Town Wednesday
This ghost town was originally named “Rock Island” but was later changed by the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad to “Glenrio” or “Glen Rio”. The name was a curious choice, however, since “glen” means...
by Sharon Hall | Mar 11, 2014 | Tombstone Tuesday
Enoch Holton was born on October 19, 1796 in North Carolina, and his wife Tabitha Pipkin was born on November 28, 1796. Enoch and Tabitha married on April 2, 1822 and had a family of at least five children (my estimates): Elvira (1823 or 1824) Jesse Walker Pipkin...
by Sharon Hall | Mar 8, 2014 | Surname Saturday
The surname Kerfoot (or alternately spelled Kearfott), like many other surnames, was a locational name and would have meant “dweller at the hill-slope at the foot of the hills (or valley)” or simply a family who lived at the foot of a hill or in a valley. Surnames...
by Sharon Hall | Mar 7, 2014 | Feisty Females
Catherine Anselm “Kate” Gleason, like her good friend Lillian Moller Gilbreth, was an engineer and businesswoman long before those career choices were considered appropriate for a woman to pursue. Her father left Ireland in 1848, three years after the potato famine,...