Whitney

[DeComyn]

I am researching the family of Susan Whitney Greenly b.1827 Much Birch and know that her parents were William and Elizabeth. I have been unable to find Whitney Greenly going further back, but have found a William Whitney and an Elizabeth Greenly, both born in Burghill whose dates seem to correspond. I'm sure they wee known to each other as William's sister Elizabeth was christened the same day as Elizabeth Greenly. I believe they got married and put their names together. Does anyone have any information about this? Thankyou

[indiapaleale]

Hi,
I would think that Susan's name came about as the direct result of the marriage of a Whitney to a Greenley. I have several of those types of names in my tree. In one case a Flint married a Foden and they named their first born son Thomas Foden Flint. The Foden name was carried on for a couple of generations as a middle name.

I would say that your assumptions are correct. Be nice, however to find the marriage record of William and Elizabeth.

Cheers,
India

[DeComyn]

Thanks for that, I'm glad that you've been able to confirm that my suspisions may well be correct - the weird thing about this is that when born all the children are listed as Whitney, as are the parents, but it is when Susannah gets married that she and her father are listed as Whitney Greenley.

I haven't been able to check marriage registers yet for Burghill and Much Birch, but I presume they too could say Whitney. I wonder why the change of heart, or was it just a way of getting her mother's surname onto the certificate. Would she have bothered about that?

Come to think of it, she is down as Susan on the marriage certificate although the rest of the time she uses the full Susannah. What a pest she is!!!