Sabrina Darnowsky

Many genealogists are thrilled when they discover that they have a Quaker ancestor–not because that confers any particular honor by association, but because Friends are such meticulous record keepers. Quaker meetings keep track of when a person was born to members of that meeting, along with the names of their parents; when and to whom a member married; the names and birthdates of their children; when and where they moved; when they died; and sometimes where they were buried. A traditional Quaker marriage certificate includes the names of the parents of the bride and groom, where they lived, when and where the ceremony took place, and the signatures of all the people who attended the wedding. A veritable bonanza of family and personal connections!

A less explicit clue for identifying Quaker family ties can also be found in the names that Friends gave to their children, especially during the nineteenth century. In some cases, a woman’s middle name might be her mother’s maiden name. For example, the firstborn daughter of Murray Shipley and Hannah Davis Taylor was named Hannah Taylor Shipley. Since the mother’s and daughter’s first names were the same, the Quaker records were careful to distinguish between Hannah D. Shipley and Hannah T. Shipley.

The use of other ancestral surnames as middle names was also quite common. The name of Murray and Hannah’s first son, Morris Shotwell Shipley, was an homage to both of Murray’s parents, Morris Shipley and Sarah Hopkins Shotwell.

It was not a rule that girls must be named for their mother’s relatives and boys must be named for their father’s. Murray and Hannah’s second son, Caleb Wright Shipley, was named after his maternal grandfather, Caleb Wright Taylor.

It was also not a rule that a child’s name must include a family surname. Murray and Hannah’s second daughter, Mary Charlotte Shipley, was given the first names of other relatives: her maternal grandmother, Mary Jordan Davis, and a maternal great-aunt, Charlotte Davis.

On occasion, Friends would slightly modify precedent. Another Shipley daughter, Katharine Morris Shipley, was a bit of an anomaly. Her middle name was in honor her paternal grandfather Morris Shipley, but I have not discovered any other Katharines (with a K) on either her mother’s or father’s side of the family. There was, however, a Catharine Morris Shipley (with a C), who was Murray’s first cousin once removed and a close family friend. In this case, perhaps the use of K in Katharine’s name was an attempt to better distinguish her from a relative, especially since they shared a middle name and surname.

Given the overall pattern of reusing family names for subsequent generations, it can be perplexing when certain names don’t seem to have any family connection at all. Murray and Hannah’s last child, Walter Tatum Shipley, was a puzzle to me. A friend of Murray’s, Samuel Canby Tatum, was actually his fourth cousin, although it was doubtful that either knew of that connection. But Walter? Sometimes I suppose you just have to break new ground.