A. D. D. T. middle name?

Question

Came across a rather strange middle name(?) while researching the children of an ancestor. On the transcribed index card of his birth record the child’s name is recorded as Noel A. D. D. T. Gardner.  "Vermont Vital Records, 1760-1954", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XFK6-D9J : 19 February 2021), Daniel Gardner in entry for Noel A D D T Gardner, 1822.

In subsequent records he is simply listed as Noel A. Gardner. (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39609379/noel-a-gardner) 

Any idea what the A. D. D. T. might have stood for? I assume some famous figure of the day (1822 dob) but I can’t think who.

Thanks and cheers!

Comments

Thanks to some help on how those index card transcriptions are organized on familysearch, I was able to track down the original record. https://www.familysearch.org/records/images/image-details?page=1&place=5405477&rmsId=M99F-MQS&imageIndex=192&singleView=true

Which unfortunately did not shed any light on what the initials stand for, except that they are very clearly “A. D. D. T.” and not some other abbreviation.

That page did clear up a couple of questions with the other children, though.

Answer 1

It's probably Asst = Assistant (Gardener)

Comments

That doesn’t make sense in a birth record.

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Maybe he just had a huge long name and the cleric couldn't fit them all in! like Noel Andrew Delaney Distin Trevor Gardner? LOL

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Could also be some phrase by the mother, since he was the last of 14 children. But, unlikely.

Answer 2

Have you looked for the actual town record (not the card transcript)?  Most original Vermont town records are digitized at FamilySearch.  I would wonder if this was a mis-transcript with a notation of "Add'l" for Additional or something similar that got transcribed as part of a name.  Middle names weren't a big thing at this date (although some people did have them, and as you hypothesize, were sometimes the name of a famous person).

Comments

I’ve gone through what I could find from Pownal, which didn’t include original birth records, only the images of these index cards transcribed by a later town clerk.

Many of their other children did have middle initials. The child I’m descended from, Amy Jane Gardner, even went by Jane in her census entries.

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If you search via the FamilySearch catalog for Pownal,  Vermont you will find a number of microfilm copies of the actual records.  You may have to manually search for the record.

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Actually, I had just added a comment to that effect above. I did figure out how to find it with a little guidance, and did find the original listing of children. (Linked in my comment to the original question above.)

Unfortunately, it didn’t help. It clearly reads Noel A. D. D. T. Gardner, with those initials signifying middle names as can be seen with some of his siblings.

Answer 3

UPDATE: He went by Noel A. Gardner throughout his life, except for that birth record. The A. stood for Andrew, found in his Civil War resignation muster roll record.