What's in a name you ask? Well, I suppose a name could be an identifier, a way of pointing to someone and saying "She's a Stringfellow!" That statement could mean that I look like my father, or it could mean that I belong to a set of people who go by the last name (surname) of Stringfellow. Both are true. I do in fact look more like my dad than I do my mom, and I am in fact, running with and claiming the Stringfellows I come in contact with, for the most part. I'm going to say Nix on the Englishman Peter Stringfellow, who I have no intention of ever claiming, and hopefully, he was more or less from another branch of the good name.
Names were created and given and as you (we all) know they could be associated with the jobs one had (Clarke = clerk), or the area one was from (Robin of Hood), and they could be variations of other names such as "Oh, that's William's son" later to be known as Williamson in Scotland, but Williams in England. Strange, but true. My name, the name Stringfellow was a variation of the name Strong Fellow and/or even from Arm Strong or Armstrong. The Scottish remnant of the Stringfellows was not in a clan per se, as we were Lowlanders and Border Reivers, but we hung with the Armstrongs and adopted their ways, tartans, people, trades, habits, and bad behavior right up through the Middle Ages. Somewhere around the 15th century, there were those Stringfellow/Strengfellow/Strengefelaw (etc) who broke from the ranks of doing evil and decided to support the Crown. This led to one of my recorded ancestors, Sir Robert Stringfellow (1615 Scotland) being knighted. He and his family left Scotland in 1660 when King Charles II took the throne. There was obviously some trouble there.
The earliest recorded spelling of Stringfellow was in the 13th Century in the area of York or Yorkshire England, again, back in those days the area went back and forth under English and Scottish rule. Here is what the Surname database has to say about that particular Stringfellow : "The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Strengfellow, which was dated 1286, witness in the "Assize Court Rolls of Cheshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307" Here's a link: https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Stringfellow You can see the name(s) go through a lot of history before they become your reality. I knew I was English and Scottish because my dad's side of the family was primarily Scottish and my mom is an Edwards -- Yeah, English. I fight with myself all the time.
Recently, a Scottish friend of mine got a taste of what it's like to make fun of the silly Americans who do DNA tests. He was laughing at me because as he said, he didn't need to do a DNA test to find out he was 100% Scottish, born and bred for centuries. I called him out on it. He refused at first, but I goaded him into it because his mouth was so much bigger than his brain. I knew that even most Scots will show Scandanavian blood, Irish blood, Welsh blood, and God-Help-Us-All, English blood. It's just a truth that we really can't get away from. There were simply too many pretty English girls running around and those rugged Scottish boys just couldn't help themselves. Sure, they married the Anglo-Saxons and gave them proper Scottish surnames, but their babies were born with the stain of English blood for centuries; and they still do!!
My friend's last name was McLeod, or so he thought it was. The funny thing about being an investigator, sometimes my Bloodhound senses kick in and go places online such as www.scotlandspeople.uk.gov and I find things. In his case, I found that he was in fact born on the day and in the place he thought he was born, which was just outside of Edinburgh, however, (and this is huge), his birth certificate had been amended. I guess his mum never told him. The man who raised him didn't sire him. That man, the man McLeod, married his mum when the boy was nearly 5 years of age. She had been married to a Mr. Clarke from the mid 1970s until just before she met the man who would later raise the young lad. Why tell a kid? That was her thought process. Why? Because he doesn't need to be 44 years of age finding out that not only did he have a dead-beat dad that beat his mum senseless, he had a twin brother who was still living, and going under yet another name, as he was properly adopted at birth.
The last name Clarke is my best friend's last name now. She married her sweet and loving husband over 30 years ago here in the U.S.A. Her husband's people are more Irish than English, and I wondered if the DNA for my friend would come back green or not; it did. After weeks of testing my hypothesis and knowing what he knew because I laid the truth right in front of him using the website, he decided to ask his mum the truth. She wasn't pleased. Not only did she not tell him about his father, she had never told him or anyone really, that she had a second baby just minutes after the first. She knew she couldn't afford one baby, but twins were never even mentioned by her doctors. It was the 70's. I get that, but apparently, it was a real surprise and her mother talked her into shipping the baby off to a distant relative in the western isles of Scotland literally when he was only days old. No mention of it to anyone ever.
The thing about birth certificates is they can be amended, but there is a check box that the doctors check for multiple births. I guess she always told folks it was checked by mistake. I don't envy anyone having to find out that they not only have a different father but also have a twin brother they could have been beating up on and sharing their world with; if they only knew. What's in a name? Too much to contain in some cases. The same site that I used to find out that his parents had married after he was born, of course, told me who his mum had been married to before. That search led to other searches such as arrests, criminal history, rental and real estate history, and occupational history. We searched every nook and cranny for his real father (without having to ask his mum or her family) and we found much more than we expected. The man really never left Edinburgh! Who knows, he and his new family could have been secretly watching the boy grow up. The mum was seeking divorce when she became pregnant and it wasn't granted to her until two years after the birth of her sons. The father, Mr. Clarke, was working when the babies were born so he never knew there were two! WOW!
I'm not saying that research is good or bad. I'm saying that excavating can uncover more than one bargains if they dig where no one has dug in many years. Things had a way of being covered up for privacy, for family, for keeping a good name, etc., oh, the things we do to save face! What is done in the dark will always be brought to light! There is nothing wrong with a woman realizing that she can't keep two babies, and giving one to a good family. Where the problem comes into play is not telling the truth in the beginning and some 40+ years later having to have a very uncomfortable conversation about a few issues that could have been dealt with slowly and methodically over the years.
I'm not sorry I had my friend run his DNA. He knows now that he is not only NOT full Scottish, and he shouldn't berate others for not having the privilege, but he also knows that humans are humans and we act and do human things which can (at times) really screw the world over for ourselves and for others. His mum didn't deserve to be beaten. She didn't deserve to be put into a situation where she couldn't love and give care to both babies.
The brother was found too! The really crazy (and good) thing is, that his parents and family told him the truth as much as they knew. He never knew his mum's actual name, but felt that it was Anne or Annie since every now and then someone referred to her, and he could piece the puzzle of his life together. He lived a good life up in the relatively secluded Orkney Islands after being brought from the Skye or Harris area when his family moved a few years after he arrived. He was educated, decided to go into the family fishing business, and is co-owner of a fishing boat. He's married and has 2 daughters who are both in college as of 2022. He too was sad and upset that he didn't know he had a twin! The funny thing is, they are both tattooed, both play guitar, both are Protestant, and both drive blue cars!
What's in a name? So much. The name of Jesus holds more than can be imagined. We will never be abandoned. We will never be given away. We will never be lied to. We will never need to cover up the truth. In that name, we have eternal life, and we have eternal hope. This world is odd, upside down, and absolutely bonkers, but we do have Christ! It will be OK. I know when we get to Heaven we'll have a new name. That's going to be interesting. I can't wait. I think I'll still hang on to Stringfellow as one of my middle names. It's something I don't ever want to do without. I rather like it. Thanks, Dad!
Photo Credit: 4Crests.com
Read more: https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Stringfellow#ixzz7ehvfGzRv
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