Birthmark

“ Personally, I am inclined to believe that birthmarks are about twice this frequent. The laity think that the per cent. is even larger, as each individual has seen or heard of several cases.
Only the nervous mothers.—Perhaps not one mother in twenty could mark her child. Only those mothers who are very susceptible to unusual mental impressions mark their children. Nervous, gloomy, despondent, excitable mothers are liable to do this. Practically nineteen-twentieths of the mothers need not have a moment’s fear of marking their child. ”

“ In Scotland and in the north of England, the paternal grandfather and grandmother have namesakes in the eldest son and daughter, then comes the turn of the grand-parents on the mother’s side, then of the parents themselves, after which fancy may step in. In Germany the same practice prevails as regards the two eldest; and likewise in the south of France, where the child, whatever its sex, bears the grandfather’s name, thus accounting for various uncouth feminines; but though thus christened, the two eldest children are never so called, but always by the diminutive of their surname. ”

“ If the genealogist is not a student of Heraldry, he will find it both interesting and probably advantageous to form some slight acquaintance with this fascinating subject. The question of the Arms of a Family are of more importance than its Crest and Motto, and through the knowledge of what arms are, and have been, borne by it, the identification of some of its members may be established. ”

“ In such a case widows occasionally prefer to use their own names or initials.
In this country a married woman merges her name with that of her husband. It is not uncommon nowadays for married women to sign their own Christian name, their maiden surname, and their husband's surname as their signature. There is value in this as it preserves the family identity of the married woman, but the question of its legality may always be raised.
The name of daughter or daughters is often engraved below that of the mother on her card, before the young woman enters formally into society. ”

“ A bastard has precisely as little right to the surname of its mother as it has to the surname of its father. Obviously, however, under the customs of our present social life, every person must have a surname of one kind or another; and it is here that the anomaly in the British law exists, inasmuch as neither statute nor canon law provide any means for conferring a surname. ”

“ I don't know what to call you.'
'Gladys,' she answered; and her uncle received the information in evident disapproval.
'Gladys! Now, what on earth is the meaning of such a name? Your father and mother ought to be ashamed of themselves! Why can't people name their children so that people won't stare when they hear it? Jane, Susan, Margaret, Christina,—I'm sure there are hundreds of decent names they might have given you. I think a law should be passed that no child shall be named until he is old enough to choose for himself. ”

“ There is another point connected with family portraits that has given me occasion of thought and speculation; and that is, the way in which those [230] children who are named after an ancestor or ancestress sometimes, I do not say often or always, but certainly sometimes, do in a very remarkable manner receive the stamp of the features of that ancestor after whom named. This has nothing to do with the naming of the child at baptism because of a supposed resemblance, for in very young infants none such can be traced, but the likeness grows in the child to the person whose name it bears. ”

“ The illegitimacy of birth is an insuperable bar to inheritance, and a person of illegitimate birth inherits no arms at all, the popular idea that he inherits a right to the arms subject to a mark of distinction being quite incorrect. He has none at all. There has never been any mark which, as a matter of course and of mere motion, could attach itself automatically to a shield, as is the case with the English marks of difference, e.g. the crescent of the second son or the mullet of the third. ”

“ In the same way, in a pedigree it is necessary to enumerate the names and arms of all the wives of a man. Consequently for tombs and pedigrees—when all being dead, there is no reason to indicate any particular woman as the present wife—plans have been devised for the combination of several coats into one memorial achievement, plans necessitated by the circumstances of the cases, and plans to which no objection can be taken. ”

“ John of Jerusalem in England need to establish some test of birth. The wording of the statute, however, is very loose and vague, and in fact, judging from the names and arms of some of the knights, must be pretty generally ignored. But Peer, K.G., or C.B., alike need pass no test of birth. The present state of affairs in this country is the natural outcome of the custom of society, which always recognises the wife as of the husband's status, whatever may have been her antecedents, unless the discrepancy is too glaring to be overlooked. ”

“ Every Chinese man and woman inherits a family name or surname. A woman takes her husband’s surname, followed in official documents by her maiden name. Children usually have a pet name given to them soon after birth, which is dropped after a few years. Then there is the ming or name, which once given is unchangeable, and by which the various members of a family are distinguished. But only the father and mother and certain other relatives are allowed to use this. ”

“ There are many such in all good libraries, a list of which will be given later on; but, while the search is in its infancy and does not go farther back than two or three generations, probably the Peerages (if the family is of social [Pg 7] position) , with perhaps certain other printed pedigrees and works on family history, such as Burke’s Commoners and Landed Gentry, should suffice for the present.
But the golden rule in genealogy should always be remembered; and, though the information thus derived may possibly be fairly correct, many details may call for verification later in the search. ”

“ Most people nowadays have one or more Christian names and a surname, but this was not always the case. Every Christian from the earliest days of Christianity must have had a Christian name given to him at baptism. And before the days of Christianity every man, woman, or child must have had some name. But the practice of giving surnames grew up only very gradually in the countries of Europe. ”

“ Enthusiasm and patience are certainly necessary qualifications of the successful pedigree-hunter, and endowed with these virtues he has not much to fear, for the driest details seem replete with interest when regarded in the light of dawning discoveries.
Nor can a pedigree-hunter work at genealogy alone; many fascinating subjects, such as biography, history, and heraldry, must almost necessarily more or less follow in its train, opening up a vista of further interest and a field for new discoveries. ”

“ It is a general custom among all these nations not to have any special family names, titles, or surnames; using, as I have before said, but one appellation. Now, besides the Christian name, Juan or Pedro, they use as a surname that which the mother gives them at birth—although there are mothers so Christian and civilized that they will not use this latter name, but prefer that both Christian name and surname be conferred in baptism; this we often do. ”

“ In Europe, where titles and property are inherited by male children, under the laws of entail and primogeniture, a legal significance attaches to the line of the surname, and to most Americans this line is of special interest. Nevertheless, it often happens that our ancestry along this line is less brilliant than along some of the other lines. In that case we will not do full justice to our surname until we reveal the glory of the sturdy stocks which our ancestors had the good sense to engraft upon our line by marriage. ”

“ With many families it is a convenient custom to christen the sons by the mother’s maiden name in addition to their first individual name; but the whole conversion of surnames into Christian names is exclusively English, and is impossible on the Continent, as state and church both refuse to register what is not recognized as in use. Of English surnames we need say nothing; they have been fully treated of in other works, and as any one may be used in baptism, at any time, the mention of them would be endless. ”

“ A limitation more or less similar prevails in Germany and other European countries.
As regards the surname (Fr. surnom, name in addition) , custom has universally decreed that a man shall be known by the name of his father. But in England and the United States, at least, this custom is not legally binding; there is no law preventing man from taking whatever name he has a fancy for, nor are there any particular formalities required to be observed on adopting a fresh surname ”

“ To all who can afford the extra expense, we recommend the literal application of the legal method. To apply it to collateral lines would be difficult and expensive. But it is the true method of demonstrating our direct ancestral lines, and it is especially desirable for the line from which we have inherited our surname. Strictly legal proofs of descent, competent to establish the genealogy in any court of law and to justify its entry as "proved" upon the [Pg 26] records in any European college of heraldry, constitute most valuable and interesting family heirlooms. ”

“ There are a few Old German names, mostly of women, in Mam and Mum. And there are also two [Pg 156] Old Frankish women's names, Mamma and Momma (apparently overlooked by Foerstemann) , in the Pol. Irm. It seems difficult to take these names as from anything else than the widely-spread word signifying mother. In an age when names sat much more lightly than they do now, one might fancy such a word superseding a woman's original name. I can even conceive the possibility of such a name, its origin having somewhat passed out of sight, being given in a masculine form to a son. ”

“ Some, once so popular that they scarce gave identity to the bearer, are now all but obsolete, while numerous appellations at present generally current were then utterly unknown. There are surnames familiar to our ears whose root as a Christian name is now passed out of knowledge; while, on the other hand, many a Christian name now daily upon our lips has no surname formed from it to tell of any lengthened existence. The fact is, that while our surnames, putting immigration aside, have been long at a standstill, we have ever been and are still adding to our stock of baptismal names. ”

“ The official term for a mark of cadency is a "difference" mark, i.e. it was a mark to show the difference between one member of a family and another. The mark used to signify a lack of blood relationship, and a mark used to signify illegitimacy are each termed a "mark of distinction," i.e. a mark that shall make something plainly "distinct." What is that something? The fact that the use of the arms is not evidence of descent through which heirship can be claimed or proved. This, by the way, is a patent example of the advantage of adherence to precedent. ”

“ E. H. Y. will find the question, surname or sirname, slightly touched upon in my English Surnames (3rd edit., vol. i. p. 13.) , and argued at length in the Literary Gazette for Nov. 1842, in a correspondence originating out of a notice of the first edition of my book. I think the balance of evidence is in favour of surname; that is, a name superadded to the personal or baptismal appellation, which applies with equal propriety to the sobriquets given to monarchs and distinguished men, and to the hereditary designations of people of humble rank. ”

“ A genealogist, however, is not satisfied with a pedigree which cannot be proved, and if our pedigree-hunter thinks, either from the high qualities with which he is endowed, or from the knowledge of noble ancestors having adorned his family tree, that kings must have been undoubtedly numbered among his forbears—well, of course, he must make good his claim, perhaps even to royal descent in the male line. ”

“ Genealogical research has, however, made great advance during the last generation. The critical spirit shown in such works as Round’s Studies in Peerage and Family History (1901) has assailed with effective ridicule the methods of dishonest pedigree-makers. Much raw material of genealogy has been made available for all by the publication of parish registers, marriage-licence allegations, monumental inscriptions and the like, and above all by the mass of evidences contained in the volumes issued by the Public Record Office. ”

“ Every social casualty had an effect upon our names which it could not have upon our words. The names found in Domesday Book, casting aside the new importation, were, in the great majority of cases, obsolete by the end of the twelfth century, and of those which have survived and descended to us as surnames, well-nigh all are devoid of diminutive or patronymic desinences—a clear proof that they were utterly out of fashion as personal names during the era of surname formation. The Norman invasion was not a conquest of our language, but it was of our nomenclature. ”

“ Most of the probably most helpful MSS. and publications have been mentioned in this little book; but if the pedigree-hunter is roaming among the documents in the Record Office or the British Museum, or among the contents of a great library, let him look through the various [Pg 60] indexes and try to find out something new for himself. There is a joy in discovery, even if it is only that of an unknown document, and it is impossible to enumerate every work which might help all cases, while new ones, of course, are constantly being added. ”