Yet, sometimes there is a name so strange that I am forced to accept its legitimacy, if for no other reason than that I can't imagine what else the writer could have been aiming for. For example,
Tregoweth Tilbort
source: Boston Birth Records, 1700-1800
3 comments:
Tregoweth is probably a family name, a Cornish one. Cornish family names often begin with "Tre" or "Pen" such as "Trethewey" or "Penhallow." Giving a child his mother's maiden name as a first or second name has long been common practice.
That's a good tip. If it is a Cornish name, that's an interesting clue about the ethnic makeup of 18th-c. Boston. Many of the original immigrants were from East Anglia and Dorset — a group of Cornish immigrants would be unexpected, but intriguing!
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kernow/names_t.htm
Look there for Cornish names beginning with Tre- tons of them.
Wonder when Rich Trethewey's family came over?
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