Standridge: Blogging From A to Z

My maiden name is Standridge. It was the name I associated myself with for 25 years. The name has quite the story behind it too.

My mother and I spent many Saturdays researching our family tree at the local library. For a special trip, she would even take me to do crayon rubbings at cemeteries. Before we started doing this, she decided we would research my dad's family because my aunt already did hers and she wanted us to know our history and where we came from.

One of the most interesting things we would research was the origins of our name. Being such an interesting name, Standridge was quite the name for debate. at one point, we were told that it is a Native American name, originating from Standing Ridge Mountain. We thought that was a little convenient, but went with it.

Later, we found out that the Standridges actually came from England, so that explanation was void.

A few years ago, we were talking to a historian about the spelling of names, in relation to census, family bibles, and such. He was telling us that with so few people being able to read and write, names were often misspelled. The example he used was Standridge- that it is actually a misspelling of Standish and that we are decedents of the historical family.

I don't know what the actual origin is, but I find it very interesting and like to think of what life was like for different generations.