Question of the Week: Have any of your ancestors had something named after them?

+16 votes
2.3k views

This week WikiTreer Kitty Smith got a beautiful Celtic harp, which she named Eowyn! 

Otherwise, I don't know of any ancestors who had things named after them, though several had generations of descendants named after them.

How about you? Have any of your ancestors had something named after them?

in The Tree House by Eowyn Walker G2G Astronaut (2.4m points)
reshown by Chris Whitten
Riggsville MI is named after family the only problem is it no longer is a town/
My Hubbell ancestors were early settlers in the Catskill Mountains of NY.  Hubbell Corners and Hubbell Hill along with East and West Hubbell Hill Roads bear their name.
My ancestor, Francois Valle, was one of the original settlers of Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, which is the oldest town west of the Mississippi.  Pretty much everything in Ste. Genevieve County has the Valle named attached. streets, the school districts (both the public and private Catholic schools), and several historic buildings.
John Melton was my 4th g. grandfather who originally owned Melton's Bluff and later purchased by Andrew (Old Hickory) Jackson in @1815 who worked the plantation with about 40/60 slaves.  Melton an Irishman by birth married a Cherokee woman who was the sister of the most powerful Chickamauga Cherokee of the Great Bend. (Doublehead).  Melton's Bluff was selected as the seat of the county government.  The town was named in honor of John Melton.  A plaque was installed and I believe it still stands,  but now the site is below the waters of the Tennessee River.  The town was renamed "Marathon".
Emerson Palmer Elementary School in fairborn Ohio was named after my dad.
My GG Grand Father was George Washington Evans  The town of Evans Georgia was named after him, infant if you go into the majors office you will still see his photo hanging on the wall.
Yes, Budd Lake, Harrison, Michigan.

The story goes that Budd Lake was named after my great-great-grandfather's brother, Richard Budd, who discovered the lake while getting lost.  He climbed a tree and found the lake.

Considering the county had been surveyed, the area was inhabited by native Americans, and the French fur traders routinely traversed the state, it's unlikely it wasn't discovered prior.  Just our family was one of the first to settle the area and thus named it.

Richard Budd also was the founder of Greenwood Township in Clare County, along with my great-great-grandfather Thomas Budd.
The tiny, and unincorporated town of Hulsey, Missouri is named after an ancestor.  Which one is up for debate because Hulseys were and still are, legion in the area.  Wikipedia tells me the post office was established in 1890.  It's in Washington County.
My g-g-g-grandfather William Cody Richmond was a pioneer in southern WV and in early 1800s established Richmond's Ferry on the New River which operated until the 1970s. The settlement was known previously as New Richmond but now known as Sandstone. The name lives on today as the Richmond District of Raleigh County
My mother's maiden name is Emig. Her family came from Germany in the mid 1800's. They went to Emigsville, PA to meet their Emig cousins, who built the town. Our branch of the Emig family also met the Eisenhower family there and moved to the mid west. One of the Eisenhower became President Eisenhower. Can someone tell me When Emigsville was built., and when the Eisenhower family moved to the mid west?

The county in which Emigsville is located was established in 1783.  It was then York Co. and is and now in Lancaster Co.  There is an email address on this site:  http://www.mantwp.com/h_main.asp for contact with Manchester township in which Emigsville is located. Contacting that person may give you the answer.  

According to the Whitehouse papers https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-eisenhower-family-home-in-abilene-kansas the Eisenhauer family migrated from Lancasster Pa to Kansas in 1878.  See https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-eisenhower-family-home-in-abilene-kansas  where several sources are listed.  

93 Answers

+20 votes
 
Best answer
My 19xg grandfather was Edmund BLANKET, a Bristol, England clothier and wool merchant who died before 1371. And, yes you've guessed, he is popularly credited with inventing the blanket. On the other hand....
by David Cooper G2G6 Mach 1 (15.8k points)
selected by Logan Gavin
I bless your ancestor!
Can you link his Wikitree profile?  I want to see if I have any connections too
Hi D.

Profile is not on wikitree at this time. You can do searches also by going to your profile and at the top of the page typing in first and last name for the person your endeavoring to find. You can also do a google search by using something like Edmund Blanket wikitree
Yes, plenty of ancestors especially on Hudson side. Hudson River and Hudson Bay certainly named after my aancestors. My half-sister Sophia Rose is taken from the William Ros line of ancestry is my guess. Rose was her middle name but at the time I didn't know until locating her much later.
+16 votes
Yes ... indirectly.  My great-great-grandfather, Dr. Daniel Owen Rowlett moved to the Texas area when it was "Indian Country" and settled on the Red River.  A branch of that river became known as "Rowlett Creek" ... which ran South toward what is now Dallas, Texas.  To create a water supply for Dallas, a dam was built - and a city developed on the lake created by the dam.  The new city was (and is today) named "Rowlett, Texas".   (see https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fro92)
by
Now that’s cool, George!
And that's where I live! So, "thanks" to your g-g-grandfather, George!
LOL ... he simply lived on the property where the creek originated - thus, it was named for "him" - and later, due to those who had limited imagination when tasked with creating a name for a city - our name became memorable!!   Have a great day!!
+21 votes
My 6th great-grandmother was Nan-ye-hi, the famous Cherokee woman commonly known as "Nancy Ward."  I was thrilled when I attended a conference at a hotel in Nashville and found that one of my meetings was in the "Nancy Ward" Room.  Nancy Ward's grave site in Benton, TN is maintained as a state park by the state of Tennessee.  There is also a "Nancy Ward" chapter of the DAR.
by Kathie Forbes G2G6 Pilot (836k points)

That was worth holding your head high, wasn’t it. I’d have spent all my time telling everyone! smiley

My ancestor Return Jonathan Meigs (Meigs-36) was the namesake for Meigs co TN and the mountain in the Smokies.  The county was formed from land confiscated from natives in the "trail of tears" events which he presumably opposed, along with similar preceding events mentioned above, many of them occurring during his tenure as federal Cherokee agent, much the same lifetime as Nancy Ward.  His son was gov of Ohio for a term and likewise had a county named for him.  His grandson migrated on the trail of tears, being related to those forced out.

Return Meigs worked hard for the Cherokee, but he also believed that the tribe would only survive if they gave up their lands in the east, moved west of the Mississippi, and adopted American ways.  Two of his grandchildren, Emily and Return Jonathan (children of his son Timothy) married Cherokee from prominent families.  Emily married Jack Walker, great-grandson of Nancy Ward, and Return married Jane Ross, the daughter of Chief John Ross.
+23 votes
"Gunn's rule", a somewhat esoteric rule of Egyptian grammar (about the syntactical relationship between negation and tense),, was named after my grandfather , Battiscombe Gunn ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battiscombe_Gunn , https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gunn-1707)

The Gunn Effect and Gunn Diode ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunn_diode  ), a miniature microwave generator, were named after my father ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._B._Gunn , https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Gunn-900 )

Prebbleton, in NZ, was named after a distant cousin, Anne (Stone) Prebble ( https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Stone-7824 ) and her husband James. (For instance see [https://dcaldlan.com/the-whitehead-family/james-stephen-whitehead-1796-1838-and-ann-marie-stone-1803-1879/ James Stephen Whitehead (1796 -1838) and Ann Maria Stone (1803 – 1879) Kent, England to New Zealand and the Prebble connection. “Canterbury Pilgrims”.])
by Janet Gunn G2G6 Pilot (154k points)
Janet, I think you’re the first person I’ve become acquainted with (through WT or anywhere else) to have a dad with a Wikipedia article. Cool.
Thanks.

Father, grandfather, half uncle, great-aunt, great-great grandfather, and his brother.

Gives me a lot to live up to!
And a wonderful legacy to pass on.

Hold on. (Stone) Prebble? sorry, the internet lurker in me can't help pointing that out.

At least it has the "r".
+13 votes
I have one and a sort of:

The community Price Settlement in New Brunswick was started by my 3 greats grandfather. It isn't a very big place but it does show up on a map. Another local feature, Wishart's Point (not far from Price Settlement) was named after my 4 greats grandmother's second husband's family.
by Doug McCallum G2G6 Pilot (525k points)
Definitely a reason for some personal pride, Doug. Found Price Settlement on Google Maps. Love the forests and the seclusion.
My paternal grandmother's mother was born there and I grew up visiting relatives there most summers although we mostly stayed in the larger community of Tabusintac (Micmac name that supposedly means two rivers even though there is only one). I loved spending a few weeks each summer on the river.

Haven't been back since 2000 but we plan on going in 2020 for an every 5 year event that is pretty much a town wide family reunion that has been going on since 1950.
+14 votes
Probably thousands of us can be credited with roads and streets named for our families.  The road where I live was named for my husband's family who have lived here about 100 years.  When I talk to some young people on the phone that stammer when I give my address, if needed, after a conversation with me, I tell them "They named it that because they knew I was coming here".  That sometimes elicits a giggle but usually a pause of 15-20 seconds and then they move on to other things and have no idea of what I alluded to.
by Beulah Cramer G2G6 Pilot (561k points)
Some people are just slow, Beulah. (Hope your therapy is going well!!)
+11 votes
Once called Isle of Wight after a similar island of the same name in England, and still privately owned by the family to this day, Gardiners Island (or Manchonat as we call it) in the Hamptons, at East Hampton, Long Island, New York, is named after my 9th-great-grandfather and 10th-great-grandfather Lion Gardiner (1599-1663) who established there the first English settlement in what is now New York.
by Martyn Mulford G2G6 Mach 2 (29.7k points)
edited by Martyn Mulford
Martyn, that’s s great story. I don’t think I have any ancestors that go back that far in the USA. Not 10 generations.
+13 votes
Reamstown, Pennsylvania comes to mind.  Contrary to popular opinion, it was not named for the first settler, Eberhard Ream, but for his son, Tobias, who donated land for the first meeting house and cemetery.  The Reams were a very cool family for the time period.  They were Palatinate immigrants and were the western most white family to settle in Pennsylvania.  They lived with and intermarried with the Native Americans.  They were also granted British citizenship because they were judged to be very good, devout people by the British government.  They were said to be very proud of this.  So proud that my grandmother had no idea that she had "German Roots."  Her great-grandmother actually married an English immigrant which was pretty rare in the Pennsylvania Dutch community, even today.

Now there is a push to rename Reamstown to "Stevens," or is it Stephens?"  I think the first and I think it is a bad idea.  Of course, I don't yet know why.  Parts of Reamstown are already called Stevens.
by
Lucy, I remember some controversy in Charlotte many years ago about renaming a certain long road which had carried the name since the 1700s. Too many descendants (including me) at the hearing; the motion did not carry.
+10 votes
My wife's family (O'Leary) were pioneer homesteaders in the Eel River Valley on the North Coast of California. There is a street in Fortuna California named O'Leary.
by Bart Triesch G2G6 Pilot (267k points)
I like that. Places should remember their founders. Any relation to the Mrs. O’Leary who had the cow in Chicago?
Cool - I have been there - and after the quake too - husband used to go up and fish salmon and steelhead there
Pip, that thought just went through my head - they say great minds . . .

Well, we know that's true about us, Cheryl! cheekylaugh

We sure do, Pip! heart

+12 votes
Beattie’s Ford Road in Charlotte, NC, used to lead to Beattie’s Ford on the Catawba River. The ford is now under Lake Norman.

Berryhill Township was named after my ancestors, early settlers in what is now Steele Creek, Mecklenburg County, NC. There is still an elementary school named after them. Berryhill High School was torn down and the Berryhill Baptist Church relocate when Douglas Airport expanded in the 70s.

Toddville (now only Toddville Road) in Mecklenburg County was named after ancestors.

A place called “Reid” once existed in Transylvania County, NC, named after my Reid pioneers.

Shepherd Creek is in the Cowee Valley of Macon County, NC. Dalton Creek in the same area. I’m descended from both families.

Underwood Road in Gaston County, NC, is named after my maternal line. Clubb Mtn in the same area no longer goes by that name. (It wasn’t even a mountain, just a hill.) I’m a descendant of an Underwood-Clubb marriage.

On an old map of Paw Creek, in Mecklenburg County, is a place called “Rhyne.” Hugh T. Rhyne built a large home and gave the place its name. Years later, a train stop was established near the home. It named the area Rhyne’s Station for a short while in the 1930s and 40s. Hugh’s first wife was a Lawing cousin of my grandfather. That was kinda roundabout, wasn’t it? Typical Southern. Gotta give the back story to make one point!
by Pip Sheppard G2G Astronaut (2.7m points)
+13 votes
Yes!  A couple of features on the Hudson River below Albany - Norman's Kill - for Albert Andriessen Bradt (Bradt-2) see he was from Norway so they called him Norman - in Dutch a creek or stream is called a "kill" and a promontory called Anthony's Nose - for Anthonius De Hooges(De Hooges-2)
by Navarro Mariott G2G6 Pilot (164k points)
Norman’s Kill: now that’s a story! Cool.
+13 votes
I'm not too sure this counts, but after having been born and raised in New York City, then spending a large chunk of my adult life on Long Island, I moved to Virginia and thus changed from being a New Yorker to being a Virgin.  While living in Virginia, I happened to spend some time in a lovely Pennsylvania town that was named after me ... it was called Virginville.

(ok, I apologize profusely - now puh-leez stop throwing rotten fruit at me)
by Gaile Connolly G2G Astronaut (1.2m points)
lol, sooo bad Gaile!
...and if you had loved in Intercourse, Pa.?
and let's not forget the other nearby towns in that same area - Paradise, Blueball, Lititz, ...
My favorite is the PA town known for its singing cows, Moosic.
+11 votes
Simsbury, Connecticut by some sources was once named Higleytown, because so many people from the Higley family lived there and owned so munch of the land there, for about 200 years.

I don't know if that was an official name or just something people would jokingly refer to it as.

The head of the family that originally moved there is Captain John Higley, ID is Higley-63

He was born in Surrey, England.
by D. Botkin G2G6 Mach 3 (39.2k points)
DB, same for an area near where I grew up: Rankintown. The Rankins are a collateral line of mine. The place was still called that by the old folks when I was growing up.
What is the town called now?
+10 votes

Plenty of minor local roads, neighborhoods, creeks, and (of course) cemeteries named for ancestors who lived in those areas. Those names add to the interest of visiting ancestral places. And there are a few scholarship funds and similar memorials.

But one that I found particularly interesting is the town of Stetson, Maine, named  for my 4-G grand uncle Amasa Stetson. Amasa apparently became very wealthy in shoe manufacturing in Boston (when he died in 1844 he left a fortune of over half a million dollars and no children; I don't know who ended up inheriting). At some point he used some of his wealth to acquire this town in the interior of Maine, and gave it his family name. In Google News I discovered a legal notice from 1997 in which the town was seeking to obtain a clear title (via adverse possession) to a meetinghouse that he had built there that was supposed to be deeded to the town after Amasa's death, but had never been legally transferred. The legal notice has genealogical relevance because the list of interested parties who might possibly claim ownership of the meetinghouse is a list of Amasa's siblings, nieces, and nephews identified at the time of his death. Apparently none of us descendants of those interested parties bothered to try to claim a piece of the meetinghouse, which I think is probably the same building of which Wikipedia says "The Stetson Union Church (1843), designed in the Greek Revival style by Bangor architect Benjamin S. Deane, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places."

Stetson hats and Stetson University are named for another member of the same Stetson family, but my relationship is rather distant.

by Ellen Smith G2G Astronaut (1.5m points)
edited by Ellen Smith
Stetson University is located in Deland, Florida.  My nephew and niece graduated from there.  A beautiful campus to drive through.

Ellen, you may not know who inherited Stetson’s fortune, but I bet you can say who didn’t! laugh

+12 votes
Great grand father had a valley named after him, Joslin Valley in Pushmataha County Oklahoma. His descendants are to numerous to count.
by Steve Stobaugh G2G6 Mach 1 (19.9k points)
Beautiful area, the Joslin Valley.
+9 votes

Joliet, Illinois is said to have been named after my 8th great grandfather, explorer Louis Jolliet.  In addition, the Plains of Abraham were likely named after my 10th great grandfather, Abraham Martin.

by Greg Lavoie G2G6 Pilot (368k points)
Very cool historical connections you have, Greg.

Abraham Martin was my ancestor, too. The nearby Buttes-à-Neveu (Hills of Neveu) are named for another ancestor.

I should have scrolled down further to see that my "Plains of Abraham" Abraham Martin ancestry had already been covered!  Greg and Myrna, we are definitely related; hi cousins!
+11 votes

I Have two submissions..... One boring, one cool.

Boring First...   By *birth*, I am a Jackson, and I believe that the town of Rockbridge, Ohio has a Jackson street named for my Great-Great-Grandfather Franklin Jackson.

On my Adopted side, I have my Great-Great-Grandfather Hungry Jack Scott, who has a Lake, and therefore also a Pancake mix named after him.

by Brian Gix G2G4 (4.2k points)
Agreed. Hungry Jack Pancakes: I have always loved them. Mom used the mix.
+8 votes
I have probably a few ancestors who had road and street's named after them, but the one I know off the top of my head is Curnick's Row, Now Curnick's Lane in Battersea, Surrey (now London) http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/lambeth/lambeth-assets/galleries/norwood/curnicks-lane. My ancestor and his brother moved from Wiltshire to Battersea in the early 1800s probably due to the large amount of work generated in the expansion of London into the suburbs.
by Michelle Wilkes G2G6 Pilot (167k points)
+9 votes
My 6th great Grandfather, Reverend Henry James Fulton has a primary school named after him called Henry Fulton Public School in Sydney.  Reverend Henry was sentenced for sedition in 1798 and was sent as a convict on the Minerva to Sydney in 1799.  He was pardoned about a year later and spent 5 years on Norfolk Island administering births deaths and marriages to the inhabitants.  Reverend Henry and family eventually settled in Castlereagh Sydney where he took an active interest in education.
by Sandra McCabe G2G Crew (470 points)
+13 votes
by Eddie King G2G6 Pilot (686k points)

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