52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 6 – Same Name
52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks
Professional genealogist and podcaster Amy Johnson Crow has put out the challenge to genealogists and family historians, to write stories about 52 of their ancestors in 52 weeks. I am happily taking up the challenge and look forward to writing stories that will collate many years of research results. Each week a prompt will be given as the theme for the week.
Week 6: Same Name
My main area of research is the TAYLOR family on my paternal line. My great great grandparents, John and Martha lived in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales. They married in 1839, and arrived in Australia in 1841/42.
Martha’s maiden name was Lloyd, a very common surname, in the area where they lived in Wales. They had a large family of twelve children. The first two sons were born in Wales and a further ten children were born in Victoria, Australia. Each of their sons was given the second Christian name Lloyd. This was to begin a traditional naming pattern that would to continue in every family of each generation to come up until quite recently.
Children of John Taylor and Martha Lloyd:
James Lloyd TAYLOR b 1839
John Lloyd TAYLOR b 1840
William Lloyd TAYLOR b 1842
Mary TAYLOR b1844
Ann TAYLOR b 1846
Thomas Lloyd TAYLOR b 1848
Charles Lloyd TAYLOR b 1850
George Lloyd TAYLOR b 1851
Henry Lloyd TAYLOR b 1853
Alice TAYLOR b 1856
Ann TAYLOR b 1857
Arthur Lloyd Taylor b 1859
It’s interesting to note that none of the girls have been given second Christian names. This tradition also continues in future generations though not to the extent of the Lloyd tradition.
These children had large families themselves and they gave almost all sons in each family, the second name of Lloyd. Occasionally Lloyd was as a first christian name, but mostly it was given as the second name. Almost every male child in every generation since has been given the second name of Lloyd. The tradition continued as recently as the generation before me. My father was named Thomas Lloyd Jones. His brothers, were given Lloyd as their second name. It made no difference that their surname was Jones.
Lloyd isn’t a really common Christian name, so this naming pattern has at times been an advantage when researching the family. However, in the earlier generations, families were large, and usually the same Christian names were used in each family. Just keeping track of who belongs to who, and to which generation has been very challenging at times.
© 2019 Copyright. all rights reserved: jonesfamilyhistory.wordpress.com
</a
Tracking Down The Family 
Middle names can be a great gift when researching and I find my Welsh forebears a bit of a challenge as they don’t seem to very inventive with their names.
I’ve noticed the same with research in Wales. There seems to be a lot of repetition of names in families
I wonder why only the fellas got Lloyd as a middle name, maybe it was considered a masculine name?
That’s an interesting thought Dara. I’ve only thought of it as a male name myself.
I’m always interested in hearing how Lloyd was used as a Christian name. That was my Dad’s first name, but as far as I know, there’s no relation to an ancestral surname. Informative post!