Monday, December 24, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
The Origins of Surnames - Shavlik
And the Search Begins
Just yesterday in Genesis 14:17, I came across a name for a valley in Israel called Shaveh. What struck me is how close that name is to my maternal grandfather's name: SHAVLIK. The valley has also been called the Valley of Siddim and the Valley of the Kings.
Shaveh is pronounced Shaw-vay' in Hebrew. The word means: the plain
So I decided to google the meaning of the name SHAVLIK and what did I find? Over and over again I found the following meaning:
Hebrew for: the plain, that makes equality
Many Yemenite Jews' family names are consisting of the place in which their ancestors have come to Yemen (like Sana'a) and an "i" in the end (like the family name "San'ani"), indicating belonging to the place they have originated from.
From the above we might assume that the origination of the surname SHAVLIK could give clue to the original location of the family, ie the plain of Shaveh. Definitely HEBREW, which was a direction I suspected we were going. Now to figure out the reason for the 'lik' on the end. Could it be that 'lik' is the part of the word as above that means 'that makes equality'.
Just yesterday in Genesis 14:17, I came across a name for a valley in Israel called Shaveh. What struck me is how close that name is to my maternal grandfather's name: SHAVLIK. The valley has also been called the Valley of Siddim and the Valley of the Kings.
Shaveh is pronounced Shaw-vay' in Hebrew. The word means: the plain
So I decided to google the meaning of the name SHAVLIK and what did I find? Over and over again I found the following meaning:
Hebrew for: the plain, that makes equality
Many Yemenite Jews' family names are consisting of the place in which their ancestors have come to Yemen (like Sana'a) and an "i" in the end (like the family name "San'ani"), indicating belonging to the place they have originated from.
From the above we might assume that the origination of the surname SHAVLIK could give clue to the original location of the family, ie the plain of Shaveh. Definitely HEBREW, which was a direction I suspected we were going. Now to figure out the reason for the 'lik' on the end. Could it be that 'lik' is the part of the word as above that means 'that makes equality'.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
First Family Certificate
This certificate is awarded to Michael G. Slocum......in recognition of this family's contribution to the development of the State of Nebraska for more than 100 years.
William Alexander Hall
Richardson, Nebraska
2 October 1864
#1198
The first of about seven certificates I'm working on. Mike and I have a long lineage of
First Nebraska Pioneer Families
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Photo Thursday
One of my 'successes' when at the Nebraska State Historical Society Research Room last week was discovering that I could look in available cemetary books and find which cemetary an ancestor is buried in. Mike's 4th great grandfather Aquilla/Equillar HALL was a mystery because he was not buried in the same cemetary as the 'other' HALL's at Palmyra, Nebraska. Since we now had the name of the Cemetary, Prosper, we could surely find it. Seems that the Cemetary is also known as Mound Cemetry, Porter, Richardson County, Nebraska. The location is about 5 miles east of Humboldt, Nebraska.
The cemetary contains burials that were very old and some that were new. The bonus was the church standing across the road from the cemetary called Prosper Church. Long abandonded yet stately, the church where Mike's 4th great-grandfather worshiped our Father God in earnest, was filled with hay, horribly vandilized, but still very beautiful. More on that in my Tuesday Trivia post. Why is it when searching your family history that the solving of one puzzle leads to the search of yet another puzzel?
Equillar HALL was buried in the same area with his daughter Marcia who married James Shue. Before coming to Nebraska from Illinois Equillar married widow THOMPSON (her maiden name was ROBINSON) who came with several children, one of them being Nancy Jane THOMPSON. Three years later Nancy Jane became the wife of Equillar's son, William Alexandar HALL.
Equillar and widow Thompson had two children. She died shortly after the second daughter was born. William and Nancy came to Nebraska in 1864 and Equillar and his two young daughters (Marcia was 18 at the time) followed them in 1866, buying land and living next to the younger HALL family in Richardson County, Nebraska west of Stella.
It appears that Marcia HALL SHUE cared for the aging Equillar, with her husband James and his father James. At the advanced age of 86 years Equillar went home to be with his Heavenly Father in 1880 and was buried at the Prosper Cemetry across from the church where he spent many a Sunday worshiping his God.
The cemetary contains burials that were very old and some that were new. The bonus was the church standing across the road from the cemetary called Prosper Church. Long abandonded yet stately, the church where Mike's 4th great-grandfather worshiped our Father God in earnest, was filled with hay, horribly vandilized, but still very beautiful. More on that in my Tuesday Trivia post. Why is it when searching your family history that the solving of one puzzle leads to the search of yet another puzzel?
Equillar HALL was buried in the same area with his daughter Marcia who married James Shue. Before coming to Nebraska from Illinois Equillar married widow THOMPSON (her maiden name was ROBINSON) who came with several children, one of them being Nancy Jane THOMPSON. Three years later Nancy Jane became the wife of Equillar's son, William Alexandar HALL.
Equillar and widow Thompson had two children. She died shortly after the second daughter was born. William and Nancy came to Nebraska in 1864 and Equillar and his two young daughters (Marcia was 18 at the time) followed them in 1866, buying land and living next to the younger HALL family in Richardson County, Nebraska west of Stella.
It appears that Marcia HALL SHUE cared for the aging Equillar, with her husband James and his father James. At the advanced age of 86 years Equillar went home to be with his Heavenly Father in 1880 and was buried at the Prosper Cemetry across from the church where he spent many a Sunday worshiping his God.
Equillar Hall
b. 1796 in Kentucky d. 11 Mar 1880 in Nebraska
The Stone Reads:
Sacred
to the memory of
Equillar Hall
Who departed this life
Mar 11, 1880
Aged 86 years
He died as he lived, a Christian.
Dear is the spot where Christians sleep
And sweet are the strains that Angels pour
O, Why should we in anguish weep
They are not lost but gone before
Equillar is buried between James Shue and Marcia Shue. Next to Marcia is James' father James. Next to the elder James is the grave of what appears to be two children but could be the grave of Equillar's other daughter, Anna, who married the elder James Shue (another case of my mother-in-law is also my sister). The stone is very old and barely readable. I wish we would have taken more time to decipher the stone. Looks like it means another trip.................awe, the life of a family genealogist.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Tuesday Trivia
Prosper Church and the Prosper (Mound) Cemetery
The Prosper Presbyterian Church is located deep in the center of Richardson County, Nebraska about 6 miles southwest of Stella or 5 miles northeast of Humboldt in an area the locals had once hoped would be the town of Prosper. The land is laced with streams beds lined with trees, the farm ground is some of the best in the state.
We were looking for the grave of our Equillar Hall, Mike's 4th Great-Grandfather who was said to have been a real gem of a man and well liked by all who met him. Back in Illinois he was a Justis of the Peace with dark hair and eyes of the lightest blue in color. He was the father of our William Alexandar "Alex" Hall by his first wife Rhoda O'Bannion.
As we came up on the location of the cemetery we were given what we genealogists call a BONUS!
The original church attached to the cemetery stood across the road. Lonely in the adjacent corn field, the church was in great disrepair and had been used for storage of hay for a good many years. It had been raped repeatedly by vandals.
Stately she stood. We couldn't resist going inside just to stand in the room where Mike's great-grandfather stood to worship our God and Father. We felt blessed and sure that this saint of a man had prayed for the generations to come after him that they would know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and indeed Mike and I fulfill that description even though we came to this revelation later than we had hoped (our late-20's).
The light was perfect and I found myself wishing that my Daughter-in-law, Kandi, was behind my camera instead of myself, but the camera was clicking as I shot a few pictures of this grand old church.
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