Reading Between the Lines

On Monday, my blog subject was Obsessive Compulsive Family Research Disorder, and I'd like to thank everyone who left a comment. I can see the Wild Ones and I are not the only ones who suffer enjoy this affliction.

But it was Alice over at My Genealogy Research-Alice who triggered a memory for me.

You see, I never knew my dad's mother. We always knew her as Mary Bowman Percival, Bowman being her maiden name. According to my dad, his mother never had a middle name. She was just always, Mary.

So imagine my surprise when I came across an engagement announcement for my grandparents, and it lists her as Mary Anne Bowman.  Not only that, but her marriage license gives her name as Mary A. Bowman. Unfortunately, by the time I had discovered these records, my dad had passed, so I couldn't even discuss this with him and why he thought his mom had no middle name. But it makes me wonder if this middle name is legitimate or not.

It's prompted me to look at the family and wonder why I don't have middle names for anyone else in this line,  The line was sort of anal when it came to naming their children.

I don't really remember my dad and his father ever discussing dad's mom. I certainly never thought to ask my grandfather is dad's mom had a middle name. I  was only 13 when he died. But since both these records predate my father, It's entirely possible that her middle name was Anne.

So imagine my surprise when I came across this little table favor from their wedding.

Copyright 2010,  for Generational & Gene Notes