This week's theme is Changing Names.
My great-grandmother was named Frances Adelaide McAlpin, after her mother, Frances Adelaide (Rose) McAlpin.
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| Charles McA. Pyle, Jr. and his paternal grandmother, "Granny Pyle" circa 1927 |
My genealogy software program, Family Tree Maker, allows me to indicate all the names that are used for an individual and indicate the preferred name. I track them all and it is interesting to see how an individual changes his or her name over time.
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| Screenshot of Frances Adelaide (McAlpin) Pyle's page in Family Tree Maker with the two columns representing (1) the source of the information and (2) if there is an image associated with that source |
Her legal given name was Frances Adelaide McAlpin, as noted in an 1883 passport, and when referenced in a few newspaper articles. (Interestingly, the newspaper notices for her 1884 wedding referred to her as Miss McAlpin or Miss McAlpine, because she was the only daughter in the family!)
In the US Presbyterian Church Records, she was named as Frances Adelaid [sic] McAlpin. She was baptized on June 10, 1860, at the age of a few months, along with her two-year-old brother, William Willet McAlpin.
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| William McAlpin: Frances Adelaid McAlpin: children of David H. & Frances A. McAlpin |
In the 1860 and 1870 federal censuses, she was listed as Frances McAlpine, but by the 1880 federal census, she was F. Adelaide McAlpin, and after that, she was Adelaide in just about every record that I have found for her.
I wonder why she decided to go with Adelaide instead of Frances? Perhaps the death of her mother, Frances Adelaide (Rose) McAlpin in November 1870 at the age of 41 had something to do with it.
Adelaide McAlpin Pyle died on September 22, 1937, in Noroton, Connecticut, and is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Morristown, New Jersey, next to her husband James Tolman Pyle (1855-1912). Both her death certificate and her gravestone list her name as Adelaide McAlpin Pyle.
Either my husband or I took this gravestone photo when we visited a dozen years ago.
Adelaide McAlpin Pyle
February 28, 1860
September 22, 1937
"She is not dead she
doth not sleep she
hath awakened from
the dream of life."
I descend from Frances Adelaide McAlpin Pyle as follows:
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