Names, Places, and Dates

The Troutman Family of North Carolina

A Genealogy from 1690 to 1850 with some records up to 1900

Names, Places, and Dates


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The Troutman Surname

The Troutman name is German in origin, and was spelled Trautmann (sometimes with only one n) in Germany. It was also spelled Trautmann or Trautman in church records in America until the late 1800s. The county clerks and census enumerators, almost all English or Scotch-Irish, spelled the name Troutman, and that is how it appears in most civil records. Occasionally, the name was spelled Drautmann, reflecting the similarity, to English ears, of the sound of German D and T. The Troutman family in America gradually accepted the "English" version of their name. Even though I refer to everyone as Troutman, it should be noted that the early Troutmans spelled their own name Trautmann. Trautmann in German means "confidant" or "trusted friend."

Given Names in the Troutman Family

I usually use the English form of given names over the German form. Thus Johann or Johannes is John, Heinrich is Henry, Margaretha is Margaret, etc. I leave a few Marias as they are instead of changing them to Mary, because I think some of the Marias may have been Mariahs. When talking about these people, I tend to drop the John that was at the beginning of almost all the male Troutmans' names (John Adam. John Jacob, etc.), and likewise the Anna in many of the females' names.

As was quite common back then, sons were named after the father's father, and the mother's father, with the "junior" often being the third son. Girls were often named after their grandmothers or mothers.

Nicknames were very common. Occassionally, a person is only in records by their nickname. While names like Sally or Molly are given as full Christian names nowadays, back then they were always nicknames for Sarah and Mary. Likewise, Peggy was always Margaret, Nancy was Ann, Betsy was Elizabeth, Polly was Mary, etc.

Sometimes it is uncertain which given name was the first name and which was the middle. I've seen the same man referred to as George William and William George. I'm not sure that the order even meant as much to people back then.

When talking about married women, I put their maiden name in parentheses before their married surname. For example: Catherine (Lingle) Troutman was the wife of Peter Troutman (c1761). When the maiden name is unknown, I put a question mark in the parentheses. Many of the surnames given in marriage records for women who married Troutman men were not maiden names, because many of the women, despite being young, were widows, particularly in the few years following the Civil War.

In the book German-American Names, author George F. Jones discusses miracle plays, which were shows in Europe in which Bible stories were acted out. According to Jones, "miracle plays may have contributed to the popularity of the names Adam and Eva, Maria Magdelena, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar (the Three Kings who brought gifts to Jesus), and other favorite roles in the plays." Adam, Eve, and Mary Magdalene were fairly common names in the early Troutman families.

Most of the early Troutman names were names which are still with us today. Some were names from the Old Testament. However, the name "Melchior" was not Biblical and is certainly not common in America today. I looked up Melchior as a last name and found it came from one of the Three Kings, and that variations were Melcher, Melchers, Melchert, Melger, and Melken. From my Unabridged Webster's Dictionary, I looked up Magi:

Magi. The three wise men from the East who brought presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Christ (Matt. ii.). According to tradition they were Eastern kings, and were named respectively Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar. It is said that their bodied were brought by the Empress Helena to Constantinople, but that they were subsequently interred at Milan and Cologne. From this last circumstance they were called the Three Kings of Cologne.

Note that the three wise men were never given names in the Bible; these names were simply European tradition. Melchior was the name of at least three different individuals in my Troutman family. English-speaking clerks could not spell Melchior, and thus it was rendered as Melcher, Melker, Melkiah, Milker, etc. A very common misspelling that I see in many genealogies is "Melchoir." The name is pronounced Mel - key - or.

Places

Places are listed by town, a comma, county, a comma, and state. For example: Salisbury, Rowan, NC. When a place begins with a comma, that generally means the event took place in a rural part of the county, or that the part of the county is unknown. Eaxample: , Cabarrus, NC. Two commas followed by the two letter postal abbreviation for a state means that only the state in which an event occurred, such as a birth, is known. Example: , , NC. Sometimes, I know an event occurred in one of two counties. For example, the early Troutmans moved back and forth between Rowan and Cabarrus Counties, so sometimes you may see an event occurring in ", Rowan or Cabarrus, NC."

I am very big on using the correct counties that existed at a given time. For example, nothing occurred in Cabarrus County before 1792, because it did not exist before 1792, when it was formed from part of Mecklenburg County. You may see a family history saying someone's ancestor was born in 1765 in Cabarrus County. I consider this wrong; their ancestor was born in 1765 in Mecklenburg County.

Dates

Dates are generally given in the GEDCOM format of the day, the three letter abbreviation of the month, and the year. Example: 25 Dec 1796. Common abreviations in dates are ABT for about, AFT for after, BEF for before, and BET for between.

In discussions of Troutman families, each name is followed by the year of birth in parentheses. For example: Peter Troutman (1716). Where the year of birth is approximate, a "c" for circa precedes the birth year. For example: Peter Troutman (c1761). The birth year is used to distinguish the many Troutmans with similar names. Terms such as junior and senior are imprecise because they can change over time. A good example would be the three generations of Peter Troutmans, Peter (1716), his son Peter (c1761), and his son Peter (c1790). Peter Troutman (c1761) was Peter Troutman, Jr. to distinguish him from his father before his father died in 1799. After that, he was Peter Troutman, Sr. to distinguish him from his son born about 1790. Also, terms such as junior and senior did not always reflect a father and son relationship. In the 1778 list of Salisbury prison guards, Melcher Troutman, Sr. and Melcher Troutman, Jr. stood guard on the same day, but they were not father and son, but rather they were Melchior Troutman (1729) and Melchior Troutman (1744), uncle and nephew. The junior and senior just meant that they had the same name but one was older. Likewise, in the 1830 Census of Cabarrus Co, NC, the Henry Troutman, Sr. and Henry Troutman, Jr. listed were cousins, as well as being brothers-in-law. Thus, using the birth year after the name eliminates any ambiguity. As luck would have it, there were two Troutmans born the same year with the same name, Sophia Troutman (1806), daughter of Adam Troutman (1768), and Sophia Troutman (1806), the daughter of Peter Troutman (c1761). Both baby girls were baptized the same day at Organ Lutheran Church. When talking about Sophia Troutman (1806), I'll be sure to let the reader know which one.

Many birth years are approximated from ages given in census records. A very common mistake in genealogy is to calculate a person's birth year by subtracting their age given in the census (assuming that is correct) from the year of the census. However, the Official Date of the Census from 1830 to 1900 was the first of June, and before then, from 1790 to 1820, was the first Monday in August. The census taker was supposed to reflect the state of families on the Official Census Date, even though he might not arrive at a particular family's home until months later. In the 1830 census, a person who died on 2 Jun 1830 was supposed to be shown alive, while a child born 2 Jun 1830 was not supposed to be shown at all. Census takers reflected the families as they were on the Official Census Date with varying degrees of success. Of course, life went on during the two or three months the census was being taken, meaning that marriages occurred. I've seen young single women with their parents in June of a particular census and with their new husband in July by the same census enumerator. The point of all this is that the census was taken about the middle of the year, meaning that almost half the people in any given census were actually born a year earlier than the figure given by subtracting their age from the census year. For example, a person born 5 Feb 1810 would be shown as 40 years old in the 1850 Census (1850 - 40 = 1810), but so would a person born 6 Nov 1809. When in doubt, I always use the earlier year, except in cases where that would mean the person was born before the marriage of his/her parents, or the year is too close to the birth of a sibling of known birth date. I am always suspect of genealogies showing women having children beyond their late forties, or spaced less than 11 months apart (especially less than 9 months apart!). Children were occasionally born out of wedlock, but these were almost always reflected in bastardy bonds in county court records. I do not doubt that many children were conceived out of wedlock.

Occasionally, birth years can be guessed at from dates of Lutheran Confirmations. I am not a Lutheran, so while visiting the Synod in Salisbury, NC, I asked about the age at which children are generally confirmed nowadays. I was told 12 years old. I believe that in the late 1700s and early 1800s, children were generally between 14 and 18 when confirmed. Girls seem to have been confirmed a years or two younger than boys. Here are some Troutman records of birth from Organ Lutheran, Rowan Co, NC, compared to Confirmation records, also from Organ Lutheran:

Birth        Name                  Confirmation    Age
 9 Aug 1818  Sarah                   6 Sep 1833     16
14 Jun 1819  Mary Ann                6 Sep 1833     15
21 Sep 1820  Mary Magdalene         21 May 1836     15
 2 Jan 1821  John Absalom           21 May 1836     15
 2 Oct 1822  Simeon                  9 May 1840     17
 6 Jun 1823  George                  9 May 1840     16
 3 Sep 1822  Elizabeth Carolina      9 May 1840     17
22 Jul 1825  Anna Mary               9 May 1840     14
 3 Mar 1826  Jacob Eli              26 Apr 1845     19
11 May 1827  Moses Wiley             7 May 1842     14
24 Oct 1827  Samuel                 26 Apr 1845     17
31 May 1828  Christina Rebecca      26 Dec 1844     16
30 Mar 1830  Sarah Mariah           26 Apr 1845     15
15 Oct 1833  Margaret Luate         26 Apr 1851     17

Dates for marriages are generally the dates of the marriage bonds, unless the actual marriage date is known. Couples usually married within a few days of the marriage bond date.

Sometimes, dates of death are not known, but dates of funerals or burials are known, primarily from diaries kept by various clergymen. With no technology to keep corpses from rapidly deteriorating, it was very important to bury a person within a day or two of death. Thus, for a person we know was buried 9 Oct 1831, we can very reasonably say he died in October of 1831. Some people had both a burial and a funeral. The burial was simply to get the body in the ground as quickly as possible, with a a more formal funeral later, very often on a Sunday, which was convenient for more people to attend.


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