by: taneya
Wouldn't you like to have a famous person in your family tree? I always got the biggest kick out of mine. Well..... almost famous....
Growing up, I often remember my mother telling me about her grandfathers' interesting names. Her maternal grandfather was named Abraham Lincoln McNair.
My "Abraham Lincoln" doesn't look anything like the famous one. :-)
And, her paternal grandfather was named Lewis "Christopher Columbus" Robinson.
When I started researching my family history, one of the things I wanted to pursue was to find out how Lewis ended up with the middle name of "Christopher Columbus."
But, I have a theory as to why he had Christopher Columbus as part of his name.
"My" Christopher Columbus was born October 11, 1886 in Columbus County, NC. He died in Manhattan in 1928 at the Knickerbocker Hospital.
He was born on the second Monday in October - the same day we now know celebrate as Columbus Day.
But, Columbus Day did not become a national holiday until 1937 - 9 years after Lewis died. How would he have known about it?
It turns out that Columbus Day has been celebrated in New York (where Lewis lived) since 1866, particularly by Italian-American communities.
And.. he definitely would have known about it.
His son George always had a deep appreciation for the Italian culture - I wonder if that sentiment stemmed from Lewis in some way?
Add that to the fact the Lewis was born in "Columbus" County, North Carolina and my current thoughts are that Lewis just decided to be a little creative with his name.
Definitely not surprising coming from those Robinsons!