Question of the Week: Has something been named after someone in your family? [closed]

Question

Has something been named after someone in your family? Tell us about it with an answer below. You can also use the question image to share your answer with friends and family on social media. 

Comments

My family is related to Strom Thurmond. Lots of stuff named after him. Prolly gonna be renamed soon, though.

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Oooooh, lookee.. Betteeeeeee said "prolly"!  

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Paul Street, Sandgate, Queensland.  Yep.  And my family had lived in the area for more than 100 years, right up until the death of my step-mother. (I have a sibling who lives in the extended region (as in: not in Sandgate, but in a not-too-far-away suburb), and my son used to live just across the bridge.)

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:)

Southerners, waddayagunado?

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Hey, are you sure you're not my long-lost sister? 

I've used that expression most of my life -- and I'm from the south.  The deep, DEEP South. Like WAAAAAAAAY far south.  Although, not so far south as the frozen wastes of the great white wilderness they call Antarctica.  

(Bet ya dinnunt pick up what I meant with the "Betteeeeeee".  (Although, if you did, best PM me if you want to share instead of us threadjacking.))

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I dinnut pick up on the Betteeee I guess I'm from futha nawth. I'm guessing we are near cousins. We talk the same. :)

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THIS IS A COMMENT AND NOT AN ANSWER DISGUISED AS A COMMENT

If there were an award for "Best Question" as there is for "Best Answer", I would give it to this question. It has generated the most interesting answers. Thank you.

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I agree with Joyce. Very interesting answers.

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Bledsoe state park in Tennessee is named after my Uncles who settled that state.

The park was their land and is also. Their graveyard.

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A brick in the sidewalk leading to Liberty University's library has all my children's names on it. A  Road around Kellart Lake (named after Bob Kellerall and Art Hislop, partners who developed my grandfather's Hickman and Hislop land) in Cissna Park, Illinois is named Hislop Drive after my mother's side of the family. There are many towns all around the country named after my father's side the Clarks. I think every town in America has a Clark Street. Yay!

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In New Hope Community in Marion County MS Bill McCain Road was named after my grandfather. For many years their house was the only one on the road. Also Turnage Chapel Church and cemetery were named after my 3rd & 4th great grandfather Robert Daniel Turnage who started the church. In community of Kokomo Turnage Cemetery was named after James Jacob Turnage my 3rd great grandfather. Also in Washington Parish, LA is a McCain Cemetery named after my 4th great grandfather.

Answer 1

I was surprised and pleased when attending a conference in Tennessee to see that one of the rooms in the conference center was named after my ancestor the Cherokee woman called "Nancy Ward." [[Cherokee-59|Nan-Ye-Hi  (Cherokee) Ward (abt.1736-1822)]]

Comments

Kathie, the beautiful new Cherokee Casino in Tahlequah, Oklahoma is located on Nancy Ward Drive. There is art and period-appropriate clothing, and mannequins made in her and her cousin's likeness. The theme throughout is focused on Nancy Ward, and the rooms are also named for her.  We were eating there every Friday night with our good friends before the virus shut things down, and we are looking forward to being back there with our friends and the good food.

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Yes, I have been there.  The art work and displays there are wonderul.

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I thought we had talked about Tahlequah Kathie, but I could not remember if you had been there. They are building a hotel, and it has a golf course next to it. It is so much more than a casino. Hope you get to come back, and we can meet in person.

Answer 2

A bench in the local botanical garden has my mothers name: Riky van Hout-Klabbers

Answer 3

The St. John Arena at Ohio State University is named after my first cousin once removed Coach Lynn St. John. His mother was my maternal grandfather's sister, and we went to Columbus for a tour when I was a teenager. The photos on his profile page were taken in 2019.

Answer 4

Veeder Avenue, in Schenectady, NY, is named for the family of my ancestor, Simon Volkertszen Veeder https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Veeder-46

Comments

Photograph of cars and buildings on Veeder Avenue, facing State Street. Grems-Doolittle Library Photograph Collection

Answer 5

1. Lanesborough, Massachusetts (my home town)- for Mary Berry, (Berry-17665)  first Countess of Lanesborough. My 7th cousin 7 times removed. I created her profile (the only one I have ever created) just to say that.

2. Rue Jacob Nicol and Parc Jacob Nicol, Shefford, Quebec; and Rue Jacob Nicol, Roxton Pond, Quebec-- for Jacob Nicol, politician. My 1st cousin 3 times removed. He does not have a Wikitree profile but he has a Wikipedia article.

3. Canada Bay and Exile Bay, New South Wales, Australia.--for my 3-great grandfather, Theodore Bechard and 57 other men. A fascinating story!

4. Vander Bogart Street in Schenectady, New York-- my relatives have been trying for years to see if we are related. And 2.3 miles from Veeder Avenue. Mark and I are practically neighbors!

Answer 6

There's a Truslow Street in scenic downtown Charleston, West Virginia which was named for one of my ancestors, and a West and East Truslow Ave. in Fullerton, California named for 2G Uncle John Truslow, their first general passenger agent for the Santa Fe Railway. Fullerton also has a Truslow public park on E. Truslow Ave.  One of Fullerton's mini-parks, Truslow Park provides a play area for children of the surrounding community. Families can also take advantage of the picnic tables and barbecue grill that furnish the park.

No public buildings or anything spectacular.

Answer 7

The brother of my wife's paternal grandfather's maternal grandfather was Christian Friedrich Rohlfs (Rohlfs-25), a German Modern painter (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Rohlfs).

Many streets were named after him, among others:

• in Fredesdorf, Segeberg district, Schleswig-Holstein, the village where he grew up: https://onlinestreet.de/strassen/Christian-Rohlfs-Stra%C3%9Fe.Fredesdorf.981537.html
• in Bad Segeberg, Schleswig-Holstein: https://onlinestreet.de/strassen/Christian-Rohlfs-Stra%C3%9Fe.Bad+Segeberg.955433.html
• in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, where he died: https://onlinestreet.de/strassen/Christian-Rohlfs-Stra%C3%9Fe.Hagen.46720.html

In Groß Niendorf, where he was born in 1849, and in Fredesdorf, where he grew up, he received a memorial stone. The village of Groß Niendorf has set up its own website for him: http://www.christianrohlfs.de/

Answer 8

My grandfather Guy Sands had a farm with a very good gravel pit on a short rural road that was named Sands Road sometime after he served as Superintendent of Roads for the Town of Camillus, New York.

Thanks for asking, it was interesting to read about this in the small weekly newspapers online.

Comments

Oh dear, I forgot about the distant Scranton cousin who settled in the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Answer 9

Yes, I had a Service Dog named after me. 

                             

Warrior Canine Connection, 9:08 am, Nov 29 2018 wrote: Join us in welcoming WCC's Dottie. "It is with tremendous pride that we name WCC's Dottie in honor of United States Army Master Sergeant Dorothy Barry, Ret."

https://www.facebook.com/WarriorCanineConnection/photos/a.214102678667337/2013057092105211/?type=3&theater

Comments

That's awesome :)

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That is so neat!  (And I'm normally a kitteh person.)

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Oh, wow, that's awesome!

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Absolutely fantastic!

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Dorothy,

Thanks for your service.

Answer 10

One of my 2x great grandfathers, William Sadler Fears, owned a lot of land in what is now Hampton, Henry County, Georgia. He was also a minister and donated land for a church and cemetery. On a research trip to the area, I discovered that there is a Fears Drive in a subdivision named Fears Mill.

Another 2x great grandfather Henry Butter(s) immigrated from England to Rapides Parish, Louisiana in the 1840's. He donated land for a cemetery which became the Butters Cemetery located on Butters Cemetery Road. I am related to most of the people buried there including my parents.

Answer 11

I've been told that my great grandfather Dr Benjamin Lewis would travel and help build new VA Hospitals, and then he'd have a street named after him close by; I found a house that they used to live in in Kansas which has a VA Hospital close by, the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center, and there is Lewis Street right next to it. :)

Need to do more research and find more examples but I think it's pretty cool! 

Answer 12

Bray Road in Birds Hill, Manitoba is named after my grandparents, who were the first settlers on that land.

Answer 13

Reamstown, Pennsylvania is named for my immigrant ancestor Johann Eberhard Ream (Riehm). I can't prove my connection yet, but I know. There is talk of renaming the town to Stevens. Seriously? There are no longer any Reams living in Reamstown.

Answer 14

Let's go by last names of my 2x great-grandparents

Ferraiolo: Ummm....Does my dad's office count? He does have a dental practice on a main street in Salem.

Coppola:  The Coppola bus company in Haverhill, Massachusetts was founded by and named after my first cousin 3x removed, Frank Coppola. And that's Co-poh-lah. Not the pretentious way Frances Ford Coppola pronounces it. Just getting it out there. No one else but him pronounces it that way. But, yeah. The school bus company is named after him and still operated despite the hands changing.
 

That's probably it for the Italian side. You'd be hard-pressed to find stuff named after Tedesco, Gullo, Carrabs and Capobianco.

Hamel: There's a Hamel health center at Merrimack College. I don't know if there's a connection to me. That might be a bit of a stretch. Though, I am pretty sure there might be some places in Quebec named after the two Hamels who were among the first two hundred or so people who colonized Quebec. I descend from Charles Hamel.

Of course there's also Hamel Reality that my cousin owns and operates. =)

Can't think of much else on my mother's side. Though, I do have some famous names WAAAY back on her side. We're talking the 1600s here.

Tufts Academy was founded by a relative.

The Pillsbury company, too. Fun story. Someone on Ancestry put the Pillsbury logo in as a profile pic. It wasn't me! (I wish it was because that is so totally something I would do.)

The Coffin House was named after Haverhill founder Tristram Coffin and his sons. 

Some places in Salem, Mass are probably named after Thomas Putnam who was an ancestor of mine.

There's more. My mom has a veritable who's who in her tree.

Comments

And thanks for posting this as answer instead of a link to your blog. Very interesting. I think everyone's answers are interesting this go-round.

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Thanks, I guess?

Answer 15

Surprizingly  and unrelated (so far)  Tomaszewicz in Florida  has a line of Guitar Amps  with the same name.   Feel free to look him up and get one if you need one.

Answer 16

My grandfather, William Angus Koehnline (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Koehnline-3), who died just last November, was a lifelong appreciator of the arts, who had an especial love & appreciation of the surrealist artists of his time (in particular, Max Ernst). He was, for some years, a professor of English Literature, & later Dean of Instruction at a few different colleges, before becoming the very first President of Oakton Community College in Morton Grove, Illinois (later moved to campuses in Des Plaines & Skokie) in 1969/1970. He was forced to take an early retirement by the Board in 1984 as political tides in the Board changed, & he found his ideology significantly more at odds with theirs. It was really quite sad, due to how much he loved working there- he was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying "I don't really want to go... but it just may be out of step with the emerging philosophy of conservatism in education."

Anyway, as he departed, the school decided to create the Koehnline Gallery of Art, later rebranded as the Koehnline Museum of Art, depicted below. I've had the fortune of seeing a few utterly fabulous exhibits there in the past few years. Walking the halls of the college, I've found that there's still quite a lot of art that says "from the collection of William A. & Phyllis A. Koehnline," which is quite nice, as I know he put a lot of effort into ensuring the arts were of importance at Oakton.

Beyond that, I'm a descendant of a Walworth Family of Wisconsin, where there's a county named for a cousin of ours. Also Clan Munro & the American Monroes (like the President, & Marilyn) have plenty of places named for them. Oh! & I have Norwegian ancestors, where things work in the opposite direction- all that family were named for the farm they lived on.

Answer 17

Trinity University in North Carolina was renamed Duke University in 1924 in honor of Washington Duke, industrialist and philanthropist, who founded "W. Duke, Sons & Co.", a tobacco manufacturer, later called "The American Tobacco Company". Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Duke. He was my 4th cousin 5x removed. [[Brown-109144|Luther Brown]]

Comments

Not a direct genealogical relation, but I believe I have a 4th-great-grandmother who remarried after my 4ggf died to a Duke, a close-ish cousin of Washington Duke.

That being said, I have grandparents who were graduates of UNC Chapel Hill, so despite any family ties, I still have to be opposed to Duke in all things as a matter of principle, lol.

Answer 18

Orpet Park in Santa Barbara, California is named for an uncle of my grandmother Hilda (Orpet) Smith. He designed the landscaping, and the Orpet family had several other professional gardeners too. My grandmother had an amazing garden on her several acre property. I keep thinking that my thumb will turn green too, but not much luck yet.

Answer 19

The Coventry Memorial Library in Stirling South Australia was named after my great-grandfather Ray’s brother - Ern Coventry :)

It’s certainly a lovely institution that’s appreciated by the whole community.

Answer 20

In the past two weeks I discovered a trove of ancestors from my maternal side in a direct line from my mom Koeraus-1 to my 5GGfather Köraus-15 (sorry if the profile is still poor, I'm working on it) who lived in southern Austria in a place called Köraushof (Köraus Farm or Courtyard) in the XVIIIth century, up a road called Körausweg (Köraus Road). I don't know if something of the buiding still remains (there's a retirement home placed there nowadays) but the street keeps its name. I just couldn't believe it! Too bad I live like 12.000km away...

Körausweg in Google Maps

Köraushof or Kehraushof in Mapire.eu