This one has been difficult to decide who to focus on.
Next to last what ? In the end I chose next to last Christian name in alphabetic
order.
Just before a bunch of relatives named Zoe came Zenobia.
What an unusual name to begin with. According to
beyondthename.com Zenobia was a 3rd century queen of Palmyra in
Syria. Urban Dictionary says she was reputed to have been related to Cleopatra.
But what of Zenobia in my tree ? Was this who she was
named for ? Or perhaps it was the character Zenobia in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
novel The Blithedale Romance (1852). Who even was Zenobia ?
I must admit she is out on a limb somewhat, marrying into
my family…marrying a cousin of my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather may
not have even known his cousin Frederick Duckworth. Frederick was about fifteen years
older than my great grandfather. By the time my great-grandfather was born
Frederick’s father had died leaving his mother with three young children and
she had remarried, relocated to Wellington and had three more children.
Back to Zenobia. She and Frederick married in 1877 in New
Plymouth and had eight children, one of who also had Zenobia as a name; albeit
a second name. I’ve done some quick research and it seems Zenobia was born in
New Zealand about 1860 – maybe the book was the source of inspiration after all.
She was the daughter of John Northcott and Elizabeth
Hannah Knuckey, one of their nine New Zealand born children (some trees have 12
children). According to a tree on WikiTree John’s family was from Devon and
Elizabeth’s from Cornwall. That tree, and a couple of others blew the
Blithedale Romance theory out of the window though. Elizabeth’s grandmother was
named Zenobia too, and her grandmother. Elizabeth emigrated to New Zealand with
her parents in 1842 settling in New Plymouth. In my quick research I found a
death record for her mother Zenobia Bailey (formerly Knuckey, nee Odgers) in
New Plymouth in 1874.
Perhaps Zenobia is not an uncommon name in Cornwall…I
wonder why ?
No comments:
Post a Comment