Passing names down the generations

I knew I had Francis Colgrave as a name passed down at least three generations as he is one of my direct ancestors.  But I had to check my home database to find out some statistics for this post to see if names passed down happened in other branches of my trees. I’ve only included those with three or more names the same.

BLYTH, Edwin Tabrum – born 1888, 1937, 1961

BOXHALL, Anne – born 1810, 1840, 1959

BOYD, Frederick – born 1855, 1861, 1880

BROWN, Adam – born 1846, 1890, 1894

CHANDLER, William Charles – born 1829, 1863, 1895, 1923

COLGRAVE, Francis – born 1770, 1806, 1843, 1866, 1903, 1925

COLGRAVE, Joshua – born 1859, 1883, 1986

COLGRAVE, Louisa – born 1863, 1881, 1914

COLGRAVE, Samuel – born 1804, 1829, 1847, 1867

COLGRAVE, Thomas – born 1602, 1640, 1663, 1694

DAVEY, George – born 1865, 1898, 1902, 1930

DAVEY, Harry – born 1878, 1908, 1941, 2012

ENGLAND, Elizabeth – born 1830, 1857, 1900

ENGLAND, Mary Ann – born 1805, 1825, 1861

KILPIN, Richard – born 1724, 1790, 1831

MARU, Eliza – born 1829, 1846, 1863

SMITH, William – born 1840, 1883, 1911

SWAIN, Clement – born 1810, 1825, 1831

SWAIN, John – born 1783, 1808, 1815

Any births from about 1840 onwards will probably be in Tasmania also known as Van Diemens Land. Those prior to 1840 would be mainly in England – the COLGRAVE name in Bedfordshire, the ENGLAND name in West Yorkshire around Rotherham, the KILPIN name in Bedfordshire and the SWAIN name in Kent.

Readers: What name has been passed down in your family? Were you named after an ancestor or close relative?

4 thoughts on “Passing names down the generations

  1. Yes, I believe I am at least the third generation with the name Samuel, even though the name was carried by my direct line siblings……… One of those changed his surname as he did not like his born surname which was BOTTOM.

    Cheers

    Sam

  2. I have found both family names and also property names have given excellent clues. When I realised that the middle name of an ancestor named Thomas Terry King was not a diminutive of Terrance but his mother’s maiden name, it opened some doors.
    I have also been able to verify places where my grandmother lived by her fondness for using the names of significant towns in her past. Her house in Cootamundra was named for her birthplace in Norfolk, while she used the name ‘Rawene’ for two houses in later life. This led me to the discovery of lots of detail about her parents who lived in that small village in NZ.

    • What a great post but I could never do a cross stitch like that! I have just been researching my father’s grandfather who we only knew about through DNA testing – family stories and paper trail gave the wrong person. But his name was Alexander and just by chance my brother’s son is also named Alexander.

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