Everyone has an ancestor with an unusual name, but when you are from the South.... where do you begin?! My ancestors found it natural to name their children after ranks in the military. Commodore Lackey. General Wilson. Major Brumbeloe. Seriously, these are their names! You think searching ancestors named John Smith brings up too many searches, try entering General Wilson and see how many hits you get on actual Generals and not people with that forename! It's crazy.
I've already written about my great grandmother whose name is Ollie Ossilean Posey. That name is unusual, but since I've already spotlighted her, I've decided to cross over to my husband's ancestry (in this particular instance, also in the South). Ruhamah.
Ruhamah was born in 1822 in West Virginia and died some time before 1900. We don't have a maiden name for her, but in the 1880 U.S. Federal Census she is listed as Ruhamah Dent, the mother in law for the Lafayette Shiflett family. Lafayette Shiflett and his wife Nancy Louthry are my husband's 2nd great grandparents. Their son, Parker, is my mother in law's grandfather. These are names we have known and have been documented for decades. Ruhamah, however, was not known, and until the 1880 census was scanned and made available on line, she was a blank line on a pedigree chart. (Thank you volunteers who scan images! And thank you to those who index those images!)
Armed with a last name for Ruhamah, we were able to search for further documentation. What we have found is a marriage record. On 1 October 1868, Ruhamah Laugherty married Jacob Deft in Randolph County, West Virginia. Score! We have a marriage, and we have a name she used before she was a Deft... but wait! Her daughter's maiden name is Louthry. That's awfully close to Laugherty, and since we know that oftentimes names can have various spellings based on who is doing the writing and who is pronouncing the name, it most likely is the same. But Louthry or Laugherty, whichever way we want to move forward (and yes, we should always use a variety of spellings when researching), this can mean one of two things: either Ruhamah was married prior to Deft or her daughter Nancy was illegitimate.
If we go by her assumed birth year in the 1880 census, then in 1868, when Ruhamah married Jacob Deft, she was 42 years old. Her daughter, Nancy, was 26 years old. Nancy being born in 1854 would have Ruhamah being 32 years old. So, this conceivably could mean that Louthry/Laugherty is from a previous marriage.
In writing this blog post, I decided to do a new search on Ruhamah to see what more information I could find. My search was not in vain. In the 1860 census, we find Ruhamah's name transcribed as Ruamish on the census Index. Looking at the actual record, I see the writing as Ruamiah Laugherty. She is listed with her daughter Nancy C. (age 6) and son, Marion (age 3). A son! This is new! This new lead will open up to further research on Ruhamah and her family.
But let's get back to her unusual name -- Ruhamah. A search on Google lead me a baby naming site that states: From Hebrew, meaning "the one who has been spared." In the Bible, Hosea is told by God to name is daughter Lo-Ruhamah; later, God tells Hosea to call his daughter Ruhamah because she has been spared. The name is commonly spelled without the final "h" in English, as well as in modern Israel." www.babynamewizard.com
Ruhamah is such a lovely name! It is not one I have ever seen or heard before. I have come across quite a few of these beautiful names while researching family history, that had I known of these names, my children might be going by something completely different today! Then again... maybe it is best they have the names I did give them. My own father, after having started his journey in family history, wanted to change my name to Hepzibah! Hmmmm.... I think I will stick with Melyssa.
What unusual family names have you come across in your research? Have you passed those names on to your children? Feel free to post in the comments. I'd love to hear from you!
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