Thank-the-lord SHEPAR,not Thank-ye LORD              Chat | Daily Search | My GenForum | Community Standards | Terms of        Service              Jump to Forum     Home: Surnames: Lord Family Genealogy Forum      Thank-the-lord SHEPAR,not Thank-ye LORD        Posted by: Vickie Elam WhiteDate: May 12, 1999 at 06:41:55         of 2511    The woman who married Ralph SHEPARD in St. Bride's Church, London was  Thank-the-lord PERKINS, not Thank-ye LORD (the letter often mistaken for a y was  actually a combination letter called a thorn, it stood for th). Their 21 May  1633 marriage record, complete with copies of their signatures, appear in a book  by John Brooks Threlfall called __ Twenty-Six Great American Colonists To New  England & Their Origins___. This matter has been discussed in other genealogical  publications as well, although I don't have the citations handy right now. She  was consistently referred to as Thanklord or Thankslord SHEPARD in Massachusetts  records. "Lord" was part of her given name. It was very common for staunch  Puritans of that time to name their children thusly. Other names of that time  were Hate-evil, Fearnot, Be-courteous, Fight-the-good-fight, and even  Fly-fornication! Boy, am I glad naming customs have changed! :-)  Anyway, even if the marriage record hadn't been found, it is evident that she  was not a LORD. Thank-the-lord's name doesn't fit the naming pattern in the LORD  family, which didn't use Puritan names. She isn't mentioned in the will of  Dorothy (BIRD) LORD, nor are any SHEPARD grandchildren mentioned, despite the  fact that this will is very detailed and carefully written and did include other  grandchildren.  And there was no known association between the LORD family of CT and the SHEPARD  family of MA, despite the fact that the LORD family, from all appearances, was  very close-knit.  Thank-the-lord was born ca 1612, yet there is no room for her among the children  of Thomas and Dorothy (BIRD) LORD, who were married in February 1611 and had  children born/baptized in January 1612, September 1614, and November 1616 (among  others). The parish registers for Towcester, Northamptonshire (where the LORDs  lived) includes the baptisms for the other LORD children but nothing for a child  with a name even remotely resembling Thank-the-lord. And the registers are  complete, not missing entries in this timeframe. Even if the 1612 date for  Thank-the-lord is off a bit, it doesn't fit.  Anyway, her name was PERKINS on her marriage record. This was probably her  maiden name, although I suppose it could be said that she may have been a widow.  The jury is still out on that. But you can safely say that she was not Thank-the  LORD.