While Miller Hawkins Badanes may sound vaguely like distinguished white-shoe law firm, let us share with you some of the rationale of naming our son.
Even from before we found out his gender, we knew that we wanted to use family names that could honor and remember Miller's ancestry. Hopefully, in sharing this with him one day, we can encourage him to research more about those people for whom he's named. And, let's be honest, Miller Hawkins sounds a lot better than Nachum Shutzkwer Badanes, a name five generations up from Miller (sons to fathers), suggested by my own Dad.
MILLER
The name Miller comes from one of the oldest of human professions in agriculture, the refiner of grain into flour. As was the case centuries ago, occupations became last (family) names. We are lucky to have the name 'Miller' on both sides of our family. Renzi Dallas Miller was born in Jackson, Mississippi during Reconstruction, just 30 months after the end of the Civil War. He lived his whole life in Jackson County and married Anna Goff in 1894. In 1914, she delivered their tenth child, Bessie Marie Miller. Bessie played college basketball at Louisiana Tech, was a high school teacher in Springhill, LA and gave her maiden name as a middle name to her youngest child, Miller's maternal grandfather Larry Stone.
Later, we found out that the Miller name is also on David's side. In fact, David's great-grandmother was the daughter of William Newton Hawkins and Ida May Miller. Ida May Miller was born in 1863 as a second generation American, as her grandfather's family emigrated from Lanark, Scotland to Cumberland, Maryland in 1838. Her father James Miller was a Baptist minister of the 'fire and brimstone' variety; my great-grandmother notes that he was quite an intimidating figure especially to a grandchild.
HAWKINS
Thanks to my grandmother and her research, much is known about the Hawkins family history. Robert Hawkins was born in Lancashire County, England in 1695 and moved to America at the age of 20 in 1715. He owned around 500 acres in present-day Baltimore County, near Havre de Grace. Amazingly, he lived in three centuries and died at 106 on November 11, 1801. (Various records, even at that time, note his longevity). He strongly supported the American Revolution and sent three sons into service along with 2000 pounds sterling.
David's great-grandmother's father William Newton Hawkins lived from 1855 to 1922 and inherited the family farm and bred horses in Washington County, Pennsylvania.
BADANES
Finally, while Miller's last name was never in doubt, it is interesting to note that he was nearly born an exact century after his great-grandfather, Albert Wiswell Badanes. Al's father came to this country from Lithuania around the turn of the century and his wife Elaine delivered Al on August 15th, 1911. She died on Christmas of 1918 and Al was sent to live with his Aunt in Cincinnati. Except for stints in the war, he lived in Cincinnati his whole life, distributing Barq's root beer through the Midwest.
If you enjoyed this ancestry lesson one half as much as I enjoyed writing it, I think I've done my job. For family members, feel free to correct any dates, names or places in the comments.
