4 Weeks: The 16 Names

The research I've been doing has caused me to think in new ways about how to understand ancestry and family lore. Some of the names I've uncovered going back into August's past have been interesting, to say the least: Hepsibath Death, for example... one of Mary's father's forebears, 10 generations back! (It actually started as D'Eath four generations before that). And then there's the surname Feasil... a name so obscure it hardly registers as a word on the Internet—indexed by Google only about 1,000 times. (We've since had family sources who swear it's Irish).

I thought it would be interesting and revealing to list the 16 people who are four generations back from August. I don't have all those names, but each of these 14 people contributed more than 6% of August's genes... so who were they?

[FFMF = "August's father's father's mother's father"]

• FFFF: Everett L. Ball - b. 1882, California.
• FFFM: Francesca Loftus - b. 1891, Colorado.
• FFMF: ?
• FFMM: ?
• FMFF: Henry Wagner - b. 1880, Joliet, Ill.
• FMFM: Paulina Limacher - b. 1881, Joliet, Ill.
• FMMF: Willard S. Poage - b. 1894, Bolivar, Missouri.
• FMMM: Marcia Hulanski (Julianski) - b. Ouray, Colorado.
• MFFF: Elliott Augustus Finkelnburg - b. 1892, Winona, Minnesota
• MFFM: Charlotte Willey
• MFMF: William Henry Vaughn - b. 1901, Kansas.
• MFMM: Lillian Anne Wager - b. Minnesota?
• MMFF: Andrew Slaveck - b. 1889, Slovenia
• MMFM: Anna Kolman - b. 1892, Turnisce, Slovenia
• MMMF: Frantisk Dundr - b. 1894 Drbretiva, Czechoslovakia
• MMMM: Anna Slopak - b. 1901, Stod, Czechoslovakia

To me, this is a very American list of name. It's English and it's Irish and it's German. It's also a bunch of stuff you wouldn't be able to place—Mary's Mom's side is fun to read: Slaveck, Kolman, Dundr & Slopak. Sounds like the name of a Manhattan law firm!

Originally this was going to be "The 32 Names" but I realized that even with all the research I've done, I still only have 18 of those 32 names going back 5 generations back from August. All this research and I still only know 56% of August's great great grandparents.

But some of those names are awesome! Pleasant Vaughn. August Wager (see Namesakes Part 3, coming soon). Fessenden (believe it or not, this is our thread back to Augustino Balbani and his 4th-great grandfather Turco, in 1280). Stringfield, from Texas. Sauer, from Alsace-Lorraine, via Missouri. And the widow Christiann(a) Irwin Ball, mother of 11 children, our purported link back to the 9th Laird of Drum in Scotland!)

It's fun. I really wish I knew the other half of these names.