04 January 2016

Family legacy challenge week 1: What is your name?

What is your full name? Explain why your parents gave you that name.

I'm starting the challenge at Family Legacy: check it out at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/52-questions-52-weeks/ . They claim that this is the easiest way to write your life story. We'll see. Feel free to try it yourself and share the results. Now, if I can only get my parents to play....

So. First name. I was named for my great-aunt Sallie Johnson Plemmons, my grandfather McKinley Johnson's older sister. She was a love. I re-met her when I moved to San Diego, where she had settled with her large and loving (and cheerfully crazy...) family. Sallie passed away at the age of 98 1/2, and by consensus the family celebrated her 100th birthday a year or so later anyway. She's a good person to be named for: a sweet, funny, tough woman who moved from Arkansas to New Mexico, survived the Depression in the desert, and made a good life in Southern California. All the Johnsons in this family are smart, share a wicked sense of humor, and look out for each other.

Middle name: My mother shared hers with me; we are both S. Yvonnes. She is Shirley Y., so our names are very close. In fact, the original plan was to call her Yvonne, and a Double wedding Ring quilt made for her as a baby has that name embroidered on it. For some reason, they later opted to go with Shirley instead. Now, where Yvonne came from, I am not sure; it's not a name with any other history in my family. More research is needed.

Last name: I'm researching the Sheltons and they are tough. Maybe that's because the men were only allowed one of five first names. At least, that's how it seems. More on that soon.