14 April: A Day to Remember

On this day, 14 April, history happened:

In the year 979, my three-times great-grandfather Æthelred “The Unready” (through his son Edmund II “Ironside”, my twice-over 30th great-grandfather, and through his daughter Ælfgifu, my 31st great-grandmother) was challenged for the throne of England.

In the year 1471, the Battle of Barnet, a decisive battle in the War of the Roses, was fought. The Yorkists defeated the Lancastrians, killing Richard Neville (my 17th great-grandfather). This military action, along with the subsequent Battle of Tewkesbury, secured the throne for Edward IV.

In 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theater, Washington DC. President Lincoln died the next day.

In 1894, Thomas Edison held his first public showing of the kinetoscope (moving pictures).

ABCs & Our Family Trees: Letter H

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy.  I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

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This is the eighth installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

Now that the G names have been discussed, next up is the letter H:

ABCs & Our Family Trees: Letter F

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy.  I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

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This is the sixth installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

Now that the E names have been discussed, next up is the letter F:

ABCs & Our Family Trees: The Letter E

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy.  I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

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This is the fifth installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

Now that the D names have been discussed, next up is the letter E:

ABCs & Our Family Trees: The Letter B

I have always been fascinated by language, specifically where it originates and how it adapts, mutates, and relates to other languages. That is why I found the recent series of blogs by Andrew’s Kindred so intriguing. It combined my love of etymology with my love of genealogy.  I was so inspired, in fact, that I decided to try my hand at chronicling the origins of our families’ surnames.

This is the second installment of a series of posts documenting the etymology of many of our families’ surnames (recent and distant, direct and indirect.)

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Now that the A names have been documented, next up is the letter B. Holy cow, there sure are a bunch of B surnames! But, as my grandmother used to say, “In for a penny, in for a pound”, so here goes: