Monday, July 30, 2012

Was your Ancestor a Sandbagger?

sandbaggers snipit
Check this out... it's the most interesting and informative article I think that I've ever posted. It comes from an old book about surname origins and meanings by Leopold Wagner entitled "Names: And Their Meaning -- A Book for the Curious."

There are so many terms that I've seen in documents, especially occupations listed on old census records, but have never understood. This article explains how they came about, but it also explains many commonplace titles that you may be surprised to learn of their true origins. Words like Teetotaler or Quack and many others!

The oddest item in the article... "The latest terror of the streets which, unhappily, abounds in American cities, are the Sandbaggers, so called because they stun their victims with an ordinary sand-bag, such as is used to keep the draught from penetrating between a pair of window-sashes; after which robbery becomes an easy matter." What? Stunning their victims with sand-bags? That's just crazy!

It's a rather lengthy article, but it's so interesting it reads quickly. Be sure to visit Class Names and Nicknames (1893) in the Archived Materials section of Genealogy Today.

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