Tag: Surnames

January 14, 2018 Dennis Ayers

As with earlier depictions of ancestor lineages, I have used a timeline chart below, to show the life spans of each Jackson ancestor over the last three centuries. In the chart you can see Mathew Jackson, the last of the line who lived in England. He is followed in sequence by his son, William Jackson Sr, who was our immigrant ancestor to America arriving in the Virginia colony around 1679, and then by his son, John Ellis Jackson, and so forth.

 

As with previous lineages, to give a better perspective of when our Jackson ancestors lived across more than three centuries, I’ve added major wars to the timeline. As I continue to describe family stories of this Jackson lineage, you might find it useful to refer back to this chart to get a feel for the time period in which they lived.

 

Click for a Larger View

December 29, 2017 Dennis Ayers

Alias is a term used to connect alternate names of a person who has been known to use more than one for some reason, often in legal proceedings. Generally the presumption seems to be that an alias name is primarily used to conceal or disguise an identity. Quite the opposite was true in earlier times, however, when the intention was purely to identify one individual from another, before the use of surnames became commonplace.

 

The period during which aliases were most used in England coincided with the gradual development of surnames, approximately 1460 to 1650, and continued to be used even into the 1800s. The practice seemed to originate in the southern areas and slowly moved northward.

December 29, 2017 Dennis Ayers

Our first Jackson ancestor who adventured to America was William Jackson in 1679. With Jackson being a very common name, tracing his line further back in England is not simple. However, researchers in England and others have successfully traced back several generations to Thomas Jackson born about 1550 in Nottinghamshire, England. (Note this is around the time and place where Robin Hood, the heroic outlaw of Sherwood Forest in English folklore, became legendary.) Tracing further back from Thomas becomes even more difficult.

That being said, there is good reason to believe the Jacksons were actually descendants of the ancient Lascelles family from France. I’ll explain. Picot de Lascelles was a Baron who apparently come over from northern France in 1066 with a contingent of William the Conqueror’s army. He helped secure a strategic part of England around Cambridge by building a castle on a hill overlooking the river, and became the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire. His son, Roger, was his successor. After that, history mentions several generations of de Lascelles mostly in the Yorkshire area.  Then around the late 13th century, Sir John de Lascelles began using the alias of “Jackson”. This apparently continued until eventually their descendants simply became known only by the name, Jackson. Since these Jacksons came from the same general area of Northeast England as our line  is highly likely that they are our forebears.

 

 

December 29, 2017 Dennis Ayers

Myrtle JACKSON was Helen Derrie’s mother. So, the JACKSON branch of our tree follows her line of male Ancestors. JACKSON is a famous English surname, and throughout history has had various spellings such as Jacson, Jagson and Jaxon.  It is a patronymic surname formed from the personal names Jaques or John, both originating from the ancient Hebrew “Yochanan”. The name was first introduced by returning Crusaders from the Holy Land in the 12th century, and quickly gained  popularity in England.

Now, JACKSON is also a very common surname in the United States. As of the 2010 census there were slightly over 700,000 people with the name ranking it 19th of all surnames in the US.  The name is most common in the Southeastern states, as well as being especially popular in the District of Columbia. It is least common in the midwestern states. There are actually more African-Americans named Jackson than Caucasians in the US.

Amongst the many interesting name bearers was Andrew Jackson (1767 – 1845). He was the seventh president of the United States of America, from 1828 – 1836, but earlier he became a national hero when he successfully defended New Orleans against the British in 1815. Even though he lived in Tennessee, our family has no relationship to Andrew Jackson.  However, we do have a very distant relationship to another famous Jackson, entertainer Michael Jackson.

Our branch of Jacksons in America is an interesting story which begins with the arrival of our immigrant Jackson ancestor from England as an indentured servant in the late 1600s. Over the next two hundred years his descendants became prosperous land and slave owners in the South before losing all their prosperity again by the time of the Civil War. Read on to discover how their story unfolded.

 

February 27, 2012 Dennis No comments exist

Doesn’t it seem strange that a family like the Derryberrys were able to change their name so easily back in the late 1800s?  Were there not laws against such practices?  No, not really. We know that spelling variations were very common in the past mostly due to illiteracy, and earlier generations just didn’t seem to worry much about it. In fact, documents such as land records or wills could have the same name spelled differently in multiple places throughout the document as long as it sounded the same.

 

On the other hand, some folks actually did change their name purposely so it didn’t sound the same. This was usually done for a variety of reasons including a desire to break with the past, a dislike of the original name, or even if it was too difficult to pronounce or spell. Often this was done along with a move to a new location. It was never a legal problem since there were no “official records” maintained about people in most states until about 1900.  Although some states had started earlier, about that time the Federal government began mandating that all states officially record births, marriages, and deaths and regulate name changes. Since that time, folks have gradually become more educated and there are now relatively few surname changes or variations, unlike the past.

 

February 7, 2012 Dennis No comments exist

Greene County, TN, was the birthplace of the legendary Davy Crockett in 1786. It was also the home of our 17th president, Andrew Johnson, who took over after President Lincoln was assassinated. After the Civil War, the Derryberrys remaining in Greene County, TN, began feeling the need to shorten their surname. Perhaps the first to do so was Thomas Derryberry who by 1870 was using the name Dayberry. Then by 1880 his father William was also using this new spelling. Both William and Thomas and their families moved to Sevier County, TN, sometime before 1880 and lived there until the end of their lives. William died in 1890 and Thomas died in 1908.

Meanwhile, recall from the previous post that James Derryberry had married a second time to Elizabeth Hansel, in 1859. Well, later that year they had a son named Robert, and before James rode off to join the southern campaign in 1862 they had a daughter named Mary. When James didn’t return after the war, his widow and two small children must have had a very difficult time surviving. Finally, in 1870, Elizabeth who sometimes went by her first name Susan, at age 33 remarried an older gentleman named Samuel Easterly who was 64. Together they had a daughter named Cenia. Unfortunately, by 1880 Elizabeth was widowed once again.

By 1880, 21 year old Robert Derryberry, had moved away from home and was called “Ball Dery”. Perhaps Ball was a nickname, but it is obvious that he was also trying on a shorter surname. That same year he married Sarah Jane Clowers who was six years older. He possibly met Sarah when when she was visiting relatives next door to where Robert was living.  However, Robert and Sarah were married using his old Derryberry surname.

Over the next 15 years, Robert and Sarah proceeded to have three daughters and four sons. They lived and farmed near Warrensburg, TN for the rest of their lives. The Nolichucky River runs right through this area. In 1900, the family was still using the Derryberry name, but shortly after began spelling their name differently.  Most of the family members dropped the “berry” syllable and began using just “Derry”. Robert died of pneumonia in 1903 at only 44 years old. Sarah lived for another 20 years and died in 1923.  They are both buried in the Methodist Church cemetery in Warrensburg, TN. Interestingly, as can be clearly seen, the name is spelled Derrie on their headstone. Only one of their offspring adopted that particular spelling variation and that was their oldest son, our ancestor, Thomas Washington Derrie.

Jim Derry who lives in the northwest corner of Georgia, not far from Chattanooga, TN is a great-greatDNA grandson of Robert Derryberry/Derrie.  Jim had a DNA test run in 2010 that matches him with the Durrenbergers of Switzerland, proving that the Derrys/Derries of East Tennessee are in fact descendants of that line. Jim and I are second cousins, but once removed since he is one generation younger than I.

December 1, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

So far the posts on this blog have concentrated on our AYERS line of ancestors which, of course, follows my father’s line of male ancestors. Now I will turn to our DERRIE line of ancestors which follows my mother’s line of male ancestors as shown in the chart below.  The actual surname Derrie has completely changed over the last four centuries.  As you will see in subsequent posts, it started out as Dürrenberger, with many spelling variations in Europe, then changed to Terryberry / Derreberry / Derryberry, with many spellings in the American colonies and Canada, and finally to Derry / Derrie for our most recent ancestors. None of the name variants are very numerous in the USA today, accounting for no more than several thousand persons total.

Derrie Line of Ancestors
The DERRIE Line

Recall that the DNA haplogroup for my Ayers line is R1b.  Well, it turns out that the haplogroup for our Dürrenberger  >>>  Derry line of ancestors is R1b1b2, which is a subgroup of the R1b haplogroup.  Although this may at first appear to be a strange coincidence, it is not really as it is well known that western Europe is home to a predominance of R1b descendants.

 

March 15, 2011 Dennis Ayers No comments exist

According to some estimates there are upwards of 1,500,000 surnames in the United States.  According to the 2000 census, AYERS was ranked 812th, with about 38,836 occurrences of that name.  The less common variation AYRES ranked number 3025.

 

March 15, 2011 Dennis No comments exist

According to some estimates there are upwards of 1,500,000 surnames in the United States.  According to the 2000 census, AYERS was ranked 812th, with about 38,836 occurrences of that name.  The less common variation AYRES ranked number 3025.