Swinnerton Name

[swinno]

Hi there,

Can anyone tell me where George Swinnerton Parker. The American games inventor
got his middle name. It was obviously not from his mother who was a Hegeman.

Regards,
swinno

[usaPetticrew]

If you contacted someone at this link, you might get an answer to your query:


SWINNERTON FAMILY SOCIETY

http://www.swinnerton.org/
http://www.swinnerton.org/contact/

[swinno]

Thanks for the reply.
I am a member of the Society and we don't know what the connection is.

bswinno

[*Sandra*]

There is a ancestry tree which goes back to John Parker 1585 Great Burstead Essex but no mention of the Swinnerton name.

Sandra

[SLStephens]

One of my ancestors was named for a good friend of the family.  If you can, check census records to see if there are any Swinnertons living near your family.

[usaPetticrew]

Here is a farfetched possibility.  I leave it to you to pursue further, if you are so inclined.

http://parkerbrothersfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/
 "Though born in Salem in the old family mansion of my great-grandfather and of my grand-father, Wm. Balch Parker, the family had moved to Lexington when I was two years of age..."

Also from Salem was Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of  "The House of the Seven Gables."  Dr. John Swinnerton was the name of a character in the book.  The name belonged to an actual doctor who was buried in Salem, at the town's oldest cemetery, the Burying Point.
http://www.salemweb.com/tales/charter.php

Hawthorne died in 1864, though not in Salem, two years before George S. Parker was born.  Perhaps an admiration for Hawthorne was sufficient reason to name a son after a character in his book, whose name also was that of a real doctor from Salem's past.

Additionally, there were more than a few Swinnertons in Salem in early years.   HeritageQuest has a book, in which many are listed in the 1700s.
The book is titled "All Vital records of Salem, Massachusetts to the end of the year 1849."