Not So Unique
Woman in the Middle | April 20, 2012Growing up I always thought my last name was rather unique, After all, there was only one other person listed in the phone book in our decent sized town with same last name as my family. She was a real estate agent so we saw her name occasionally on a for sale sign and I always got a kick out of that. Also, no one seemed to be able to pronounce our last name, and they certainly means its unique, right? When the internet took off I found out that it was MADE for genealogy research and found this cool website where you could track your surname through time on a map of the United States. I discovered that the last name I always thought was so unique was a little more common in other parts of the country, especially in the southeast.
I got away from genealogy research, concentrating my time more on local history research instead. Recently I signed up for a new site called Genealogy Bank which has, among other things, old newspapers from all over the country, scanned in and searchable. For a local history buff like me that site is golden!!! It has really helped me with my new local history book and I have filled in many gaps in the knowledge of our area’s history. A few days ago I was down to the wire to get my new book done which means I was down to the most boring bits, proof reading and formatting mainly. Yuk! So, in a moment of boredom I went to Genealogy Bank and put my Dad’s name in. So much for uniqueness! Their was his name, same middle initial and everything, along with a picture, but it wasn’t my Dad! That was pretty funny, seeing this unknown man with my Dad’s name under the photo!
So, I was wondering, do any of you out there known anyone with my “unique” maiden name – Jarrell?
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