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Family Names

Leave a Comment / Carra, Cavanagh, General, Jennings, Jurek | Magdziarz / Megan / July 19, 2024 / Family Names

With many cousins on both sides of my family having babies, I thought it it would be fun and helpful to share some family names from our tree! While some are quite common, so many of them are wonderful and unique and I would LOVE to see them passed down to future generations!

Starting with my maternal side, the following two sets of names belong to the family line of my grandfather, Dexter Jennings.

Jennings & Zerbe

Grandfathers

Dexter

Arthur

Cecil

William

Gilbert

Thomas

James

Jacob

Issac

Henry

Uncles

Dennis Dion

Myron

Miles

Ralph

Fletcher

Oliver

Benjamin

Albert

Robert

Grandmothers

Leona

Lillian “Lillie”

Sarah

Lydia

Deborah

Ann

Elenor

Hettie

Mariah

Keturah

Aunts

Ruth Ann

Sherla

Eva

Cleona Belle

Eveline

Elenora “Ella”

Mary Etta

Henrietta

Martha

Cavanagh & Hughes

(Grandma Bergman)

Grandfathers

Howard

Daniel

Andrew

Oliver

Alfred

Enoch

Nathanial

Theobold

George

Elias

Uncles

Asbury

Alexander

Floyd

Ivan

Clifford

Samuel

Harrison

Walton

Rupert

Grandmothers

Margaret Elizabeth

Edna

Minnie Etta

Charlotte

Agnes

Jane

Nancy

Hannah

Catherine

Eva

Aunts

Marian

Emma

Harriet

Minerva

Amanda

Maria

Letitia

Eliza

Rebecca

The next set of names belong to the Polish family line of my grandmother Janice AKA “Mimi” in our family.

Jurek & Magdziarz

Grandfathers

Bernard “Benny”

Leon

Adalbert

Matthew

Michael

Jan (John)

Martin

Andreas

Jozef (Joseph)

Laurentius (Lawrence)

Uncles

Jerome

Gordon

Josephus (Joseph)

Adam

Stanislaw (Stanley)

Frank

Simon

Peter

Sabastian

Grandmothers

Janice Ann

Violet

Anna

Marianna

Victoria

Magdalena

Catherina

Agnes

Sophia

Thecla

Aunts

Lorraine

Eva

Alvina

Irene

Antonia

Catherine

Yadviga

Josepha

Mary

For the paternal line of my family tree, below are the family names from both my Italian grandfather Philip Carra and grandmother Bernice Schroeder.

Carra & Tiberino

Grandfathers

Philip

Samuel

Uncles

Stanley

Paul

Gregory

Donald

Joseph

Pietro (Pete)

Natale (Nick)

Angelo

Anthony

Carmelo

Grandmothers

Violetta (Viola)

Santa

Barbara

Aunts

Esther Lena

Angela

Joan

Theresa

Marie (by marriage)

Anna (by marriage)

Rose (by marriage)

Schroeder & Vanocker

Grandfathers

James

John

Henry

Hugh

George

Frederick

Lester

Daniel

William

Alexander

Uncles

Joel

Hosea

Owen

Julius

Charles

Arthur

Harry

Clyde

Rudolph

Herman

Grandmothers

Bernice Eileen

Alma

Zenanah Rose

Patience

Charlotte

Juliette

Sarah

Julia

Elizabeth

Saloma

Aunts

Carole

Helen

Cleona Belle

Rose

Edith

Enda

Emma

Florence

Mary

Thankful

I’m a sucker for anything vintage and names are no exception!

Below are my favorite 5 of each:

Boys

Cecil
Oliver
Fletcher
Dexter
Gilbert (Gil for short)

Girls

Rose
Leona
Violet
Minnie Etta
Emma

Please leave a comment with your favorites or let me know which ones surprised you the most!

If you are curious to learn more about any specific ancestors or relatives I’ve included on these lists, please let me know and I would be happy to share!

Family Names Read More »

Intro to My Journey as a Genealogist

Where it all started

It all began in the mid-1990’s when my mom, Jodi joined her aunt Sherla on an lifelong adventure of researching our family history. Though they were curious to discover as much as they could about our Cavanagh, Jennings, Hughes, and Zerbe lines, their mission during this time was to find proof of our rumored Native American ancestry. Together and separately, they would travel to courthouses, libraries, hometowns and cemeteries all over Indiana and Michigan looking for records, photos and stories they could glean by interviewing living relatives.

The Dreaded Archives

Throughout the 90’s, my mom’s favorite place to “hunt dead relatives” was the Kalamazoo Archives located on Western Michigan University’s East Campus. At the time, my brother and I were homeschooled and we often dreaded going because, similar to a library, we had to be quiet and we would get so bored! To pass the time, we would play hide and seek in the dated hallways and restrooms and would eventually get in trouble for doing so. This was before the days of record digitization where most records were only available on microfilm. She would spend countless hours scrolling through each image until she found a name (that may or may not be our ancestor). It was such a thrill to her! At the time, we couldn’t understand why our hell was clearly her heaven.

They say DNA Doesn’t lie

Fast forward about 20 years and I caught the genealogy bug! At the time, Ancestry.com launched their autosomal DNA testing kits and my mom and aunt jumped at the opportunity to see what our DNA would reveal. My Aunt had her mother, Margaret (my great-grandmother) take a test and then my mom and I followed suit. The results revealed the truth and dismantled the family lore.

The majority of ethnicities and percentages were what we expected to see. However, instead of any Native American, we all had a varying percentage of African DNA! My grandmother Margaret having 6%, comprised of Benin & Togo, Cameroon, Congo & Western Banu Peoples, Senegal and Mali.

In our research, we had seen the letters “B” and “M” written under the “Race” column of various census records on Margaret’s material line but now there was DNA evidence to support the suspicions and rule out the rumored Native American and Portuguese ancestry. As recent as the 1920 US Federal Census in Missaukee County, Michigan, my great-grandmother Margaret along with her mother Edna and sister Marian were listed as mulatto. For those not familiar with the term, it was used to describe the race of mixed African and European blood.

Whether my great-grandmother, Margaret, knew the truth or tried to keep it buried, she did an excellent job as none of her children or grandchildren had any idea of their African roots until our research illuminated the truth.

While the skin color of my family is white, and this discovery is not going to change the fact that we identify as Caucasian, it doesn’t erase the fact that we are the descendants of many incredible people of many shades of color that all have important stories that we can learn from.

This discovery, along with many others on both my maternal and paternal line, have fueled my passion for constantly wanting to find out more about not just where I come from, but who I come from.

Where I am now

Here we are in 2024, with access to an incredible amount of digital information and records. I have amassed 2 large online family trees and multiple binders full of a variety of documents, photos, records and stories. It would be a shame if all the information we have collaboratively collected thus far stayed in our own personal files. Instead, I want to share my passion of discovering our ancestorial story with the world!

Below is a photo of my beautiful great-grandmother, Margaret Cavanagh (Bergman) who passed away in 2016 at the age of 98. She was a colorful lady and it’s her family tree that has provided the inspiration for my site name: Our Colorful Roots.