Thursday, January 17, 2019

Unusual Name #52Ancestors

The most unusual name I’ve come across in my family research is Amzar. Amzar Benjamin Campbell was a son of Samuel M. and Sarah Ann Roberts Campbell, and younger brother to my great-grandfather Daniel Harvey Campbell.

He was born 25 October 1852 in Ohio, and died 9 October 1926, Springfield, Clark County, Ohio. He married Emma Belle Dunham (daughter of Bowen Dunham and Julia Ann Shinkle) on 4 November 1882 in Highland County, Ohio. Emma Belle was of the sister of his brother Daniel’s wife Frances who also married in Highland County on 16 September 1882. They are just one example in my family of a set of sisters marrying a set of brothers. Sometimes it helps in my research and other times it gives me a headache (especially when their some of their children have the same names).

Some records have him listed as Amzar and others have him as Benjamin or Ben. In the 1870 census for Highland County, Ohio, he is enumerated as Amaziah.

I thought Amzar had to have been a family name, but I have not found any evidence of that so far. A search for the given name of Amzar on Ancestry.com does not generate very many hits and I have found no connection between them and my Amzar. It seems the name stopped with him as I have found none of his descendants (or descendants of any of his siblings) having that as a given or middle name.

I wonder if his name may have been an acronym like the middle name (Rosebud) of Ritchie Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show?

1 comment:

  1. In my research of free people of color in the Mobile area, Philip Joseph, a free man of color, named one of his children Quinquagesima. The child was born on Feb. 25, 1827,
    aka Quinquagesima Sunday, the name given to the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent.) The child was baptized on Easter Monday of the same year.

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