Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Summers Family Nicknames

Earlier this month, I wrote about the confusion surrounding the spelling of my 2nd great-grandmother's surname in Matthews or Matthew or Mathews or ....  Martha and husband Joseph Summers raised a large family - so far I've found nicknames for nine of their 14 children, plus two (maybe three) more that had a "commonly known by" name:
  1. William David Summers = Will
  2. Phoebe Ellit Summers = Phebe
  3. James Augustus Summers = Gus
  4. Mary Irene Summers = Rene
  5. Thomas Franklin Summers = Tom
  6. Matilda Jane Summers = Till
  7. Walter Henry Summers - I wonder if he was called Walt?
  8. Robert Edward Lee Summers was commonly known as Lee.  Interestingly, Lee was apparently part of his full name.  His marriage record first listed his name as Robert E. L. Summers, then his full name as Robert Edward Lee Summers.
  9. Lenora Susan Summers = Nora or Nory  (my great-grandmother)
  10. Claude Raymond Ellis Summers was commonly known as Ellis or Ell
  11. Victor Lawrence Summers = Dot
  12. Arthur Lloyd Summers = Lomie
  13. Joseph Marie Summers was listed as Maree on 1910 census, probably spelled incorrectly but leads me to believe that he may have been commonly known by his middle name.  He reportedly died at the young age of 29.
  14. Roscoe Hamelton Summers - He was the informant listed on the death certificate for his brother Ellis - his brother's name is shown as Ellis Summers whereas his own is Roscoe Summers.  Looks like he actually used his first name!
It's easy to see where most of these nicknames came from ... but Dot?  There must have been an interesting story behind that one!

1 comment:

Barb said...

Wonder how the Marie (Maree) was pronounced for Joseph Marie. We think of Marie as a woman's name, but maybe it wasn't then, or perhaps it was pronounced differently.

I noticed that a couple of the boys had 3 names in addition to their last name. I have noticed that is becoming more popular again. For instance, if I read through a list of high school graduates in the newspaper, there are usually a dozen or so with 4 names, like the Robert Edward Lee Summers.

I like Nory as a nickname for Lenora!