It's ALL about the NAME

As most of you know,  I have been working on Family History off and on for several years.  I have a program called Reunion 8 on my computer and believe it or not,  I have over 2200 names on this program… Many of these are not my direct line,  but may be brothers and sisters and their families…  You can imagine how many names I can come up with when I find a family of 10 or more kids --and then add in their families and their kids.  It just multiplies from there.

One family that I have done much research on is the BALLARD family.  My mother was a Ballard before marrying my Dad.  Her family has been fun and exciting to research,  and I have found a lot of information on that family.  I am especially interested in ODD names that run in families.   One such odd name in the Ballard family is the first name BLAND.  I have at least 12 BLAND BALLARD's on my program plus many more who used the word Bland as a middle name.  I have never heard of the name Bland used in many other families.

I have yet to find where that name originated --but thought that it was from my SIXTH Great Grandfather's wife.   Captain John Ballard of Yorktown, VA  (1693-1745)  was his name and he married a lady named Elizabeth BLAND (or so I thought).  BUT--after much more research,  we have found that she was not Elizabeth Bland --but was Elizabeth Gibbons.  SO--I still don't know where the name Bland began.

The earliest BLAND BALLARD I have is the son of a William Ballard (1682-1754) who was Capt. John Ballard's brother.  William and his wife Philadelphia Lee had a son named Bland  (1714-1792).  This Bland Ballard patented 230 acres in the fork of the Rappahannock River in Spotsylvania County, VA where he was living on June 2, 1747.  He married a lady named Mary Deering.  Bland had a total of 13 children --but I'm not sure all of them were the children of Mary Deering. Bland may have been married more than once.  However,  one of his children was named Bland……

The first Bland Ballard in my direct line was the son of Capt. John Ballard's son,  Thomas.  This Bland Ballard was named Bland William Ballard (1734-1782).   This Bland Ballard was my FOURTH Great Grandfather.  I'll have to blog about his life another time since it is quite interesting.  He had 15 children:  9 by his first wife and 6 by his 2nd wife…  Busy man, huh????? ha

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Anyhow,  while researching another side of my family,  the CARR side,  I have come upon another odd first name,  DABNEY.   My Great Grandmother Bruce was a CARR---so I have started doing more research on that side of the family.   Her name was Martha Matilda Carr (1849-1918).   On the Carr side of that family,  I have found at least FIVE DABNEY CARR's SO FAR, plus more used as middle names.  AND --my research is just getting started. 

This one may be a little easier to solve,  but I thought I had the other one solved too… ha…  Anyhow,  this Dabney Carr  (1743-1773) had a grandmother named Mary Dabney (1688-1748).   I haven't done much research on this yet --but if  Mary was a Dabney,  then maybe that's where the name started…Mary Dabney's father was Cornelius Dabney.  I will continue to check this out. 

I'm sure I have bored you to death with all of this Genealogy… BUT--it's a true passion of mine,  and I enjoy all of the research and detail-work which it takes.  NAMES really are important when doing Genealogy... My middle name is BRUCE, named after my mother's mother's side of our family.  I used to hate that name because it was a boys name.  BUT--now I love it and am proud to have it.  One of my sons is named Jeffery BRUCE.

After all of these words in today's post,  I will close with something cute for you.  Hope you enjoy it.

Hugs,