It’s a beautiful sunny day in the middle of Easter weekend, but it’s also Saturday so it’s time for Randy Seaver’s fun, weekly challenge for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun:

1)  We all have a plethora of surnames in our family trees – and some of them are funny, strange, interesting, or unique.  Please share five of your funny, strange, interesting or unique surnames in your ancestry.  How are they related to you?

Randy and I are distant cousins several times over, so I have to begin with our common ancestress:

1. Mary Bucket (1603-1676) is my 9th great-grandmother, the wife of Mayflower passenger George Soule.  She was born in England and died in Plymouth Colony.
2. Experience Look (1678-1738) is my 7th great-grandmother, the wife of Samuel Tarbox. She was born in Lynn and died in Wenham, both in Essex County, Massachusetts.
3. John Tarbox (c1614-1674) is my 8th great-grandfather, the husband of (1) an unknown wife, my ancestress. John was likely born in Ippollitts, Hertfordshire, England and died in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts. The origin of Tarbox is unknown and it is believed that all Tarboxes in the U.S. descend from John.
4. Maria Patorai (1839-1912) is my 2nd great-grandmother, the wife of John Scerbak of Udol, Slovakia. As far as I can determine, Patorai is another unique name and I’ve always been fascinated by it. All of the Patorays in the U.S. seem to be related, but I don’t think Maria’s father, John, was a Patorai by birth because I’ve found a record for “Maria Patorai, alias Mikulik.” However, her birth is recorded as legitimate in the church records and I know there are families in the town where the male had no sons to carry on the name and offered a son-in-law whatever meager belongings he had in life if he would take on the surname. There is one Andreas Patorai in the area and I believe he is the man who made the offer to John.
5. I can’t not mention the Stufflebean surname, although I married into the family. Johannes Stoppelbein, (c1600-c1688) is my husband’s 9th great grandfather, the husband of Elisabetha (MNU), likely born and died in Laubenheim, Germany. The name evolved to Stufflebean with John, the Revolutionary War soldier. Stoppelbein translates to Stubble Leg, so I have to wonder if this early Johannes was the unfortunate man missing a leg or if it was first given to a man who lived before the start of the town church records.

That’s it for my five funny, strange, interesting, or unique surnames. Thank you, Randy, for this week’s challenge and because tomorrow is Easter Sunday, I’ve actually written this on Saturday!