The Little Details Can Mean So Much

If you weren't aware of it, Ancestry.com has released a new collection, U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index 1936--2007. Check out the Ancestry blog here for more details. I was checking to see if I could learn anything new about some of my Morehead City, NC ancestors and found a wonderful detail that had eluded me until now.

My great grandmother Ophelia Jones Bryant, I've written about quite a bit on this blog. Her photograph is what inspired me to learn more about my ancestors. Anyway, there's this thing that had been bothering me for a long time that I did not know about her.

Little Details Can Mean So Much --How Did I Get Here? My Amazing Genealogy Journey
Image courtesy of Ancestry.com

"T" was all I knew of Ophelia's middle name. Until now...

Image courtesy of Ancestry.com


Her middle name was Thomson/Thompson!


What's cool about this find is that I know now why my grand aunt Eloise Thompson Bryant Grigsby's middle name was Thompson. I then asked myself the question, why did Rosa Mitchell Jones, Ophelia's mother, choose Thompson for Ophelia's middle name? I thought about it some. I looked at census records to see if there was perhaps a neighbor who had the Thompson surname. Then I remembered this.

Source Information Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Marriage Records, 1741-2011 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. Original data: North Carolina County Registers of Deeds. Microfilm. Record Group 048. North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, NC

Rosa's sister Margaret "Maggie" Mitchell of Riverdale, NC married a William Thompson. Maybe the Mitchell and Thompson families were friends. Perhaps giving Ophelia the middle name "Thompson" was Rosa's way of honoring that family. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's Been A Long Time

Amanuensis Monday: Charity Ambrose Deed to Mt. Olive Methodist Church

Pink Invitational 2020