mtaggartDo you remember the 1965 Disney movie called “Those Calloways,” starring Brian Keith? I remember it and I think of it often because the name Calloway was favored in my Ganus family.
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| Burton Calloway Cook Son of Burton Cook and Mary Ganus b. Feb 1863 d. 28 March 1938 |
Often there was significance in the names that our ancestors gave their children and I talked about that in an earlier post. People often named their children after those that they were close to or relatives, but sometimes, even though we can see that a name had value for our ancestors, their reasoning has been lost over time. Such is the case with the name Calloway in our family. I can see that it was used with some frequency, but I have not been able to determine why that name was significant to James and Betsy as well as to several of their children.
Is Calloway possibly Elizabeth Ganus’ maternal grandparent’s name or the married name of a sister or possibly just a close friend for James and Elizabeth? I hope to someday know the answer to that question, but in the meantime I continue to look at Georgia Calloway families and wonder.
Below are some of the Calloways found in our family:
Calloway Ganus b. 1842 (Son of James and Elizabeth (Gur)Ganus)
Three of James and Betsy’s children named their children Calloway:
Edgar Calaway Brock (son of Martha Ganus and William Cohen Brock)
Burton Calloway Cook b. 1863 (son of Mary Ganus and Burton Cook)
James Calloway Ganus (son of James W. Ganus and Frances Foster)
There was also a grandson and a great grandson of James and Betsy’s with the Calloway name:
Calaway Brock b. 1911 (Grandson of Martha Ganus and William Cohen )
Joe Caloway Cook (son of Isaiah M. Cook and Sarah Adams—Grandson to Burton Cook and Mary Ganus)
In addition, there is a long list of James and Elizabeth’s descendants with the letter “C” for their middle initial and while I realize that it could stand for any number of names beginning with C, it does make me wonder if a certain percentage are Calloways.
What’s in a name? When it comes to genealogy, I think there is plenty.
Copyright © Michelle G. Taggart 2012
Michelle, it sure is tempting to assume that the origin is someone's maiden name. However, you're right to keep waiting until you uncover the appropriate documentation. Doesn't it just about kill you in the waiting, though?!?!
Yes! Basically because of the length of my "waiting list" —-so many things on that list.
I am a Callaway/Calloway descendant from the Georgia lines. – Revis
What part of Georgia? My people were primarily in Bibb, Fayette, Dekalb, Haralson, Carroll counties and of course the neighboring counties. Prior to that, they lived in Edgefield, SC and prior to that, Pitt County, NC
Like the name, Calloway. And I certainly remember Brian Keith, who was a kind and strong father figure on TV. Some of the more colorful (but what is unusual in these diverse days?) names that "took hold" in our Southern family are LaCoste, DeLorme, Pollard, and DuChallu — along with all the Toms and Joshuas.
Thanks for your comments Mariann. I wish that I would have used some of the "family names" when I was naming our children, but I was not doing genealogy at that time. Calloway, Monroe and Roderick were both names that were favored in our family.