Funny Names and Funny Business in the Census

The US Federal Census can be a great place to have a chuckle in between serious, in-depth research.  Likewise the NGSQ has some real ticklers in between its otherwise complex articles.

For instance, in the June 2010 NGSQ there is a brief one page article called "A Case of Last but not Least" (page 120) contributed by Stephen Wayne Turner.  He reveals that most of the children in one family are named some variation of the name "Bud."  While that is funny enough, his analysis of other censuses and unraveling of what is going on is amusing as well.

Recently I've been reading Who Do You Think You Are?, the companion book to the NBC series by Megan Smolenyak.  On page 77 she has reprinted the "Top Ten Unhappily Named Americans of 1880" which was a blog post originally appearing on The Genealogue by Chris Dunham.

On Facebook yesterday, blogger Bill West shared some funny treatment to some of his family names.  He wrote,"My greatgreatgranduncle Fernando Ellingwood is listed as Frenda, his daughter Amelda as Amenda and son Manley as Amendley."

What about you?  Have you had your family names morphed into amusing counterfeits, whether intentionally or not?  If so, let me know about them.  I'm ready for some more chuckles.

Comments

  1. Stanislaw ended up as Shiney in the 1900 census. His wife Victoria was listed as Amelia. What happened there?

    Enjoyed the post!

    ReplyDelete

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