A to Z April Challenge: J is for Jordan

This is day 10 of the A to Z April Challenge.  

is for Jordan.  Susan Jordan, that is.  She was my 3G grandmother, my maternal grandmother’s great-grandmother, wife of Isaac Shiflett, the subject of yesterday’s entry.  She was born to William and Mary Jordan in 1814 and died February 28, 1882.  Other than the names of her children, I know nothing of her life.  But she has entered my life in that spooky Twilight Zone theme song kind of way.

When we were expecting our first child and scouring the baby name books, my mother suggested I pick a family name.  Honor the past.  Yeah, do that.  Did she do that for me?  No.  Now, Momma did name my sister for her favorite grandmother, so evidently that was a new wave of thought as she herself matured.  I wasn’t into genealogy back then.  But of the names of our ancestors I was familiar with, I knew only those frumpy “old” names. 

Instead of honoring the past, I decided to honor The Great Gatsby.  Jordan – girlfriend to Nick Carraway, the narrator of the world’s greatest book.  A strong unisex name.  Yeah, that’s it.  Jordan it would be.

I don’t know how nicknames and pet names come about.  Sometimes they just do.   My Jordan as a baby was tiny and squeaky.  For whatever reason, I started calling her Susie.  Certainly that had no resemblance to her actual name.  Susie seemed to fit her. 

So imagine my surprise when I started researching my family and discovered my 3G grandmother Susan Jordan. 

Wuddayaknow – I selected a family name after all.

For a Jolly good time, Jump on over to the A to Z April Challenge.

©2014, Wendy Mathias.  All rights reserved.