Word of the Day – Uxornecronym

“In his slim and excellent volume, The Name Is the Game: Onomatology and the Genealogist, NGS Fellow Lloyd de Witt Bockstruck coins the term uxornecronym: “the name of the first daughter born unto a second wife honoring the name of the first wife, who had died.”[1] The word combines the Latin term uxor (wife), the Greek term necro (death), and the Greek term nym or onym (name or word).”

-Aaron Goodwin “Uxornecronyms: a little-known naming practice”, NGS Monthly, 28 Mar 2018,
   https://ngsmonthly.ngsgenealogy.org/uxornecronyms-a-little-known-naming-practice/

 

Depending on the source, Norman McKenzie’s first wife is listed as either Arabella and Annabella. After her death on 27 Mar 1881, Norman and his second wife Mary named their first daughter Arabella (b. 8 Mar 1882).

Grave of Annabella [Arabella] McKenzie, first wife of Norman McKenzie
Cemetery at Woods Island Presbyterian Church, PEI, Canada

 

1891 Canada census, PEI, Lot 60, Norman McKenzie

Arabella McKenzie, age 9, daughter of Norman McKenzie and his second wife Mary

Canada census, 1891; Census Place: Lot 60, Queens, Prince Edward Island; Roll: T-6384; Family No: 88, Head of Household: Norman McKenzie

A Baby Gift?

The other night while cleaning out a hallway desk I came across a box of items I inherited from my paternal grandfather, Raymond Everett Bence (1892-1973). I remember seeing the box on his dresser as a child and was allowed to look but not touch. It contained old watches, some Masonic items, and a Liberty Head $1 coin. I’ve looked at the items several time in the last 40+ years, but never thought much about them. This is the only coin among his belongings. (He collected stamps, not coins.)

  

Looking at it last night, something new came to mind. The date on the coin is 1853, the birth year of Raymond’s mother, Emma Rowena Macomber (1853-1909). Given its condition, I wonder if it was a baby gift for Emma. Raymond was the only child of her second marriage to Peter Gaskel Bence in 1892. I wonder if the coin was given to Raymond after her death in 1909.

At The End – Hannah (Pell) Bence (1789-1868)

Bence, Hannah – Bridgewater Alms House 1868

Age: 78
Birthplace: England
Died: 24 Aug 1868
From: F. River
Disease or Condition: Feeble and Insane
Admitted: 18 Jul 1868
Came in State, How and When: 1854, Via N. York[1]

[1] Plymouth County, Massachusetts, “State Almshouse Register, Vol. 2”, p. 110-111, entry 6990, Hannah Bence, admitted 18 July 1868; accession no. 312/II/62/4, call no. HS9.10/2545X, Massachusetts State Archives, Boston, Massachusetts.

Hiding in Plain Sight

The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844: With a Preface written in 1892 by Frederick Engels

How did I not known that this was written about Manchester and the working poor in 1844?

William Bence (1828-1900) was born in Stockport, Lancashire, England. He and his family lived in Heaton-Norris in the 1840s and early 1850s. William, two brothers, his wife, and a sister all worked in the cotton mills. They emigrated en masse to Fall River, Massachusetts in 1854.To understand their lives and why they emigrated, I’ve been looking for contemporary accounts of life working in the mills and in the Manchester / Stockport area.

Sgt. John O. Stevens

JOHN O. STEVENS

Killed in Battle
at Gettysburg Pa.
July 3, 1863.
AE. 33 yrs. 6 mos.
Co. B 2 Reg. N.H. Vol.
_________
Erected by
Moosehillock Lodge
No. 63  F. & A. Masons

Eastside Cemetery, Wentworth, New Hampshire