Can anyone in your family beat this child’s name?

 A couple of years ago we were contacted by a lady from North Carolina, USA, asking if we could do some research into her maternal grandmother, know to her as Nan Wait, who came from Liverpool, in England.

She told us there were lots of family stories about her grandmother’s name and she wanted to know more and hopefully discover how her name came about.

Once we started doing some research, we discovered the “Wait” was her married name and her maiden name was “Pepper”.

As our team are based in Liverpool, we had easy access to several different resources held by the Liverpool Central Library and Archives.

We soon discovered this amazing family record of one of their ancestors names. 

The unusual example, below was taken from the 1908 Probate Calendar for her father Arthur Pepper.

After we found this record we continued to explore further into her family tree.

We first looked to see whether all of these forenames are shown in her entry in the new GRO birth indexes. Sadly they aren’t – the first four forenames are shown in full, but the others have been completely omitted:

The excellent online “Free BMD” records index, revealed a little more information by listing her name as, PEPPER.  Ann, Bertha and then every other letter of the alphabet for each of her Christian names.

If you look closely, you will see that there are only 25 Christian names and that there was not one for the letter “P”, that’s because her surname was “Pepper” giving her a name for every letter in the English alphabet.

Ann was born on 19 December 1882 at 204a West Derby Road, Everton, Liverpool and baptized on 2 January 1883 at St Peter’s C of E Church, Church Street, Liverpool.

Ann was the only child of the marriage between Arthur Pepper and Sarah Jane Hughes.

Another strange fact is that on Ann’s birth certificate her mother’s maiden name is listed as Creighton which was the surname from her first marriage not Hughes, which was her maiden name.

Sarah Jane Hughes married Hugh Creighton in 1872 and he died in 1881 leaving her a widow.

Sarah Jane met Arthur Pepper in Liverpool where they were married in St Jude’s C of E Church, Hardwick Street, Liverpool on 15 May 1882.

In the 1891 Census Ann and her family had moved to 16 Grove Mews, Hammersmith, London.

By the 1901 Census, Arthur Pepper was a widower and his daughter was no longer living with him: in fact, 

Arthur died in London on the 12 Jan 1908.

Ann left Liverpool, England and travelled to New York, USA to join her cousin, Mrs C Aldridge at 618 West 138 Street. On the passenger listing she has called herself Nan Pepper.

Ann was also known as Ann Starkey Pepper after paternal Grandmothers maiden name and as Nan Wait by her American side of the family.

Ann Pepper emigrated to America in 1906 where she met and on 16 February 1910 Ann married Arthur Von-der Donk Wait in Woodstock Church, New York, USA.

In the 1910 US Census Ann and Arthur were living at 74 Broadway, Orange Town, Rockland, New York, USA.

In 1916 they had a son Arthur who sadly died in 1918, in 1919 they saw the birth of their 2nd son Gale.

On the 1920 US Census Ann, Arthur and Gale were living in 9 Piermont Avenue, Orangetown, New York, USA with Arthurs’ mother.

During the next five years the Ann, Arthur, Gale and Arthurs’ mother moved to Valentine Hill, Orangetown, New York and by 1930 Ann, Arthur and Gale had moved back to Piermont Avenue, Orangetown, New York but this time in number 14.

Gale served in World War 2 and then married 24 June 1944.

Ann died on Saturday 14^th April 1945 in Manhattan, New York, USA, her funeral service took place on Monday 16^th April 1945 at White Funeral Home, 43 South Broadway, Nyack, New York, USA at 3pm followed by a private interment at Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, Rockland County, New York, USA.

Ann was known for most of her life as Nan even to the end of her life and her burial.

Her correct name in full is Ann Bertha Cecilia Diana Emily Fanny Gertrude Hypatia Ivy** Jane Kate Louisa Maud Nan Orphelia Quince Rebecca Starkey Teresa Ulyses Venus Winifred Xenophenia Zuess.

You may notice that she doesn’t have a Christian name beginning with P was this an oversight or because her Surname was Pepper.

**Ivy is down as Inez on her father Arthurs’s probate registry.

We would love to hear from anyone with their own interesting family members name?

Who knows where our research into genealogy and family history research will take us next this year. 

There are many new families and stories to research for new and existing customers. 

We often get asked how long it takes to finish building a family tree?

The answer is that it is a never-ending story, for every loss in a family there are new arrivals, be it through marriage or birth the family history keeps on growing day by day. 

Every week new record sets become available, some online through the many different sites others become available as the 50 or 100-year closed record rule expires. 

Needless to say, we will as always have plenty to keep our team busy and I am sure we will answer many more questions about people’s families and their pasts.