There is meaning in names when searching your family tree.

This is a picture of a "Lightening Splitter House"  Isn't it a cool structure!  My great grandparents lived in this house and owned a huge amount of farm land.  My Great Grandfathers name was "Benjamin Randall Eastman."  He was the ancestor who taught me the meaning of names when searching for family members.

Here is a photo of Ben with his oxen. I love all the farm photo's that I have found. Once our family went to the Shelburne museum in Massachusetts and saw some oxen.  It is a very interesting place to visit if you want to see how people farmed in the old days.   One thing I learned from Benjamin is that names get passed down through generations.  He is named after his maternal grandfather Benjamin Sargent. And his middle name is from his uncle Randall Sargent.
I also learned that sometime on census records a child will be listed by their middle name instead of their first name.  Many of the census records from when he was young and living in Ohio were under the name Randall.  This at first frustrated me, until I realized that it was a key to finding other relatives. Many of my Husbands Bowlby cousins have the middle name Dineen.  As I learned more about his family I saw how the family preserved Lewis Bowlby's wifes maiden name.  You can read more about them in one of my previous posts.

I learned that in the old day's children were named after other family members.  That middle names can be used as first names, and that many middle names are the mothers maiden name or another surname from the family line.  As you learn these things, you realize just how important a name can be in your search.  This is Benjamin's son who they called Benny.  And he then had a son named Ben.  This young Ben Eastman actually gave me much of my Eastman and Sargent family information and showed us the cemeteries where my great grandparents were buried.  I find the Eastman family very interesting because they moved from New Hampshire to Clear Field Ohio and then back to Massachusetts.  Perhaps that is where I get my itch to move from.

On a non-family history note I am looking for ways to keep hydrated out here in the desert.  So my tip of the day is to take shorter showers and not hot showers.  Oh how this makes me sad.  I love hot showers.  But my skin is not liking it.  So if you are feeling a bit dry due to winter weather try this tip.  I'm going to start today.
G.G.