The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-12-11
ARP'S LETTER.
WILLIAM HELPS 10 FIND long.
LOST RELATIVES.
A Heavy Mail Atteata the Phlloso-
piers Popularity.


uudor command of General Joe Lane,
aud know Captain George W. boy.
nolds, Ia that scrgiee. lot him please
ur.to 70 his widow, at Mars Hill, Mad
ison county, North Carolina. The
poor woman ia entitled 20 ~ pension
Tor her husbands service, IL she can
prove It. 10 Is a long shoot and q mar.
row chance, but maybe some comrnde
viii SEQ this. 10 would rejoice my
heart to see little of that pension
fund coming down this way.
am not o bureau of information.
but receive many letters Of inquiry
ehout nntobellum days and families
and events, aud am always pleased to
answer them aud give the information
II can. Many Of thom arc from old
Georgia soldiers who removed west
soon after the war, and they or their
widows have heard that Georgia is
paying al her invalid soldiers or their
widows a pension. Please let mo say
to ell concerned that there is no pro-
vision for non-residents in our state
pension laws. This seems hard upon
those WHO felt constrained to emigrate,
but 1t is the law, and that settles IL.
Then there are many letters from
aged men who look back TO old Geor-
gia with longing hearts and wish to
trace up their kindred. It is q sure
sign OF gray hairs when a man or wo-
man begins to hunt M their
distant kindred or the COMPANIONS of
their youth. Here is q Mr.. John A.
Harris, of Pass Christian, Miss, who
wants to know about bis fathers rela-
tives-the Harris family, of Appling
and Macon-and also about his moth
er's kindred-tho Bledsoes. of Athens
and Augusta. Aud here is Mr.. Red
wine, OF Redwine, La., wLo wants to
know of his kin Of that name in Geor-
gia. Alas, my old venerable friends,
Judge Clark is dead and so is G. @.
Jones, the only two men who knew all
the old families of Georgia. It would
perplex even them to identity any
branch Of the Harris family, for their
name is legion, but the Bledsoes and
Redwines could no doubt be traced by
some Of the octogennrians still living.
These are very unusual names and
their kinship is not SO remote.
l vas Eliminating about the origin
Of names, Anglo-Saxon names, and
find it to be a curious and interesting
study. For instance, is it possible
that the original Bledsoe was wounded
in a fight or by accident ana bled so
much that it gave him a name? Is il
probable the Redwine ancestor had q
vineyard and made wine OF that color,
or maybe did not have a vineyard, but
was much given to looking upon the
VINE when it was red? 1t seems that
the common people didn't need but
one name until long after the Chris.
tian era. The Romans, however, be-
gan a system to honor and distinguish
distinguished people. They adopted
a PHENOMENA nomen and q cogn0.
men--as Publius Cornelius ScipiC
Publius was his Christian name, as We
call it, and no doubt the boys called
him Pub. Cornelius, his family name
and Scipio was his most notable char
acteristic, for he was good to his BLIND
old father and led him about with
staff, and Scipio means a staff.
have great respect for Scipio. Horac,
was called Horatius Flaccus becaus
he had very large ears, and Flaccu
means hop-eared It was not till tn
eleventh century that family name
were handed down to succeeding gen
eretions, and this custom was adopted
because of law reqiring births ant
marriages and deaths to be registere,
in the parish books. AS late as tn
eighteenth century many families il
England had no surnamea, and tn
children were given nicknames, a
Nosy, Soaker, Sucker, Snsggletooth
, Cockeye. Jumper, Bowlees, Redtor
etc.
AS people multiplied, new method
had to be devised to distinguish them
Prefxes and afixes. we're resorted tc
3 The word son was added to distinguis
: the father from the children, as Johu
johnson, Will, Wilson, Tom, Tomsor
The word Fitz was prefix to Norma
names and came from fIa or film,
s son. Witch in the Russian langua9
+ has the same meaning, aud so has vo
or van in German, and Mac in Sootc
. and Irish, as Macdonald, the son
Donald. 0 is an Irish prefix an
means grandson, as O'Connor, O'Barr
q O'Hallaran, etc. De or Duo is th
g French prefix for son and APP NEAR
= the same in WEIGH. These afixes an
prefxes will classify great number
names, for from John came. Jonso
l johnson, Johnston and Johnston
n The Srsith family name had peculi
IS origin. The old Anglo-Saxons We
;, ever on the lookout for invasions OF Il
island, and hence they kept lar
: force of men on the hills near the Goa
7 to look out for the invaders and