Caught In The Middle Of A Name

Oh Aunt Hettie, I just found out your middle name!

It's Lorraine just like a cousin of mine on my paternal Daviss side. That name even suits you to a tee now that I think about it. Nat King Cole even recorded a song called Sweet Lorraine
He sings in the song how he can't wait to marry Sweet Lorraine. I can imagine Uncle Shug felt that same way when he popped the question to you years ago.

I won't show the image here where I saw your middle name due to privacy concerns but I did find you in the census with your parents John and Mary Dove Johnson in Harrison County Texas for verification of my records.



click to enlarge or view excerpt




I remember the time when I was small visiting Marshall with my mom. We went to your house to
see you and Uncle Shug. I stayed there for a couple hours while mom and your son C.W. went to find Morton Jr.

I don't remember spending the night but I do remember you sitting in the kitchen churning butter. Of course curious me sat down next to you instead of playing with the cousins. I wanted to do what you were doing, and ease my mind on how you could make butter like that.

You gently told me from start to finish the process. I wish that I had been older and had a camera to take a picture of those strong wonderful hands. I can see visions in my head now of those yellow flecks, and also the toppings that later became buttermilk.

When it was time for me to leave as I was going out the door, I looked right and left for that cow who started all that business that you went through and finished.

Aunt Hettie Lorraine you were awesome then and remain so in my memory.


Not to let my paternal side get off free, I also found out in my researching my Aunt Bernice's middle name. I had always known the initial was a C but never knew what it stood for.

I even thought it was Cooper for awhile because Uncle Owens middle name was Cooper.
Now that is a story within itself. Owens after his mom's maiden last name and Cooper after his grandmother's maiden name.


My cousins and I went on a research trip to Anderson Texas several years ago and one of the gems we found was the Delayed Birth Certificate of Aunt Bernice. A great resource when you had to have proof to being born for mainly legal purposes.

Now this is a record I can use for verification because the person who attested was present at the birth.

Bernice Cordelia Daviss! I wonder where this name came from. I did see a 1910 census where my grandparents were seen several living houses down from the Bassetts.

The way the make up is of the land is and how the enumerator took the census, they could very well be living next door to each other. I am so quick to believe that Cordelia Bassett was the person she was named after even though more research is needed to verify that.

Here is the excerpt from Ancestry

Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Grimes, Texas; Roll: T624_1555; Page: 8B; Enumeration District: 0027; ; FHL
microfilm: 1375568.

Aunt Bernice and I never got to meet in person but oh what good stories I have heard about her. I did talk to her over the telephone on several occasions and for that I am eternally grateful.


You know me, I wanted to see if anyone had the name Middle and guess what! I found a young man, son of Minnie Adams with the middle name of Middle in Caddo County Louisiana in the 1900 census.


click to enlarge or view excerpt:



Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Police Jury Ward 5, Caddo, Louisiana; Roll: 559; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 0032; FHL microfilm: 1240559.

Not to be undone I thought I would look for someone whose first name was Middle. What do you know, I found her in Oklahoma.

Middle is the eleven month old daughter of Walter and Mable Freeman.


click to enlarge or view excerpt:



Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Armstrong, Nowata, Oklahoma; Roll: T625_1478; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 59; Image: 264.

I guess next time I will look for someone whose first name is First with a middle name Middle. LOL (Just playing)

My initial thinking in all of this was the hope that I could find out the maiden name of one of my great grands.

After looking at all the familiar first and middle names that my greats named their children, I went though the area my ancestors lived in the 1880 census and tried matching those names with my peeps.

Although I came up empty, my next stop is the 1870 census Harrison County Texas.