DANGLING NAMES ON FAMILY TREES by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG Found an unusual given name dangling from a branch of your family tree? If your genealogical research has failed to uncover for whom that child was named, venture down some historical pathways. Many given names found on our pedigree charts or family group sheets reflect our ancestors' admiration for ministers, military heroes and politicians as well as beloved friends and neighbors. It is easy to recognize some of these -- George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Francis Marion, Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee -- but, you may have to dig a bit deeper in the history of the locality where your ancestors resided or expand your research into the events happening at a particular time in order to determine for whom a child was named. Often we just assume that a particular given name is somehow connected to the family "way back there" and neglect opportunities to put some flesh on the bones of our ancestors. Does the name Lorenzo Dow appear in your genealogical database? It does in many. Wyatt Earp, one of the personalities at the Gunfight at OK Corral, had a paternal uncle, born in 1809 in North Carolina, so named. So who was Lorenzo Dow? He has been described as a large, raw-boned man, stoop- shouldered, with a beard reaching to the middle of his body, his hair loose and flowing to his shoulders. Dow was born in 1777 in Connecticut, of English ancestors, and died in Washington, DC in 1837. He spent 39 of his 57 years in the ministry and traveled in every state, Canada, England, Ireland and Wales. He was not formally educated and some thought him insane, but many Americans named sons for him. He began as a Methodist, but was never officially accepted by them. He first visited Ireland in 1799 where he was jeered and persecuted. He returned the following year to America and preached in New York, Alabama, and Kentucky. In 1805 he revisited both Ireland and England, where he instituted the camp meeting. This custom was such an innovation that it led to controversy, resulting in the organization of the Primitive Methodists in England. While Dow was generally looked upon as an eccentric, it is also said that he was singularly pious, self-sacrificing, zealous, industrious and useful as a wandering evangelist. He asked no pecuniary compensation for his services. Sometimes he would sell his watch and use the funds to help a poor community erect a place for public worship. He sold his own clothes to raise a few dollars to pay his travel expenses in order to meet his speaking engagements, which were often published a year or more beforehand. It is said that he was a powerful orator. No doubt many of our ancestors, particularly those who lived in Kentucky, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, heard him speak in camp meetings. Others may have read his books as he also was a voluminous writer. "Holston Methodism," by R. N. Price, which was published in 1906, provides a great deal of information about Lorenzo Dow. You may be able to obtain a copy of this tome via interlibrary loan. [Special thanks to Prodigy member Sue Montgomery-Cook who discovered and shared with me a wonderful history of Lorenzo Dow.] [email protected] 216 Beach Park Lane Cape Canaveral, FL 32920-5003 Home of The *HARRISON* Repository & *MY FAMILY* http://moon.ouhsc.edu/rbonner/harintro.htm My Family WWW: http://moon.ouhsc.edu/rbonner/index.htm LINDSAY & HARRISON Surnames & CSA-HISTORY Roots Mail List GENCONNECT: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~genbbs/indx/FamAssoc.html Data Managed by beautiful daughter Becky Bass Bonner and me, Josephine Lindsay Bass