Yesterday I turned 21 a year older, being the intelligently hedonistic person that I am my thoughts turned to my children and how proud I am of them; a daughter whom started College this year, my oldest son starting High School and my youngest son just starting school. I’m really excited that I’m almost finished paying child support! proud of them. They all have different personalities but very similar commonalities.
They all have my last name with the exception of mini me whose mother was on some ole next sh*t decided to hyphenate his last name using my last name first. But that’s another Blog Topic … this is about the fact that between myself, my 3 children, a male cousin and his daughter we are the last to carry the surname Tramuel.
What does my last name mean? If you have ever wondered about the meaning of your last name, where your family lived, what they did, or how they looked, you may find your surname may answer some of these questions about your ancestors. Tramuel is unique in that no other family, at least I haven’t found to be using this particular variation / spelling. Conversations with my mother who is the youngest of 13 children between my Grandfather “A Message to Share” and Grandmother “Fostering Family Talents” have led me to believe that we shouldn’t assume your surname was always spelled the way it is spelled today. Not sure of the exact time Census information started being collected but if you think about it, take the 1800’s when many people were illiterate, names were written by clerks, officials, and priests as they heard the name pronounced. This could have led to different spellings for the same name.
I’ve found a very, very close match with whom I assume to be my grandfather’s father and will continue my search from this new found information. A funny point to add, my aunt told my mother that my grandfather may have used his brother’s first name after he passed.
Surnames were generally derived from one of four sources:
1) Patronymic (from the first name of father)
2) Lives near locality or place
3) Occupation or social status
4) Nicknames describing person or personality
I need a flowchart to figure Tramuel into any of these categories.
