To the end of fulfilling the site's purpose, I will use it as a platform for dispensing the most recent versions of books about family history written by my father and me (see "Coming soon..." below).
Teaser: On the Origin of the Williams Species
As you might expect, not all individuals with the surname Williams alive today descended from the same Williams family. On the contrary, Margaret and Edward were the first generation of one of many modern-day Williams lines.
In the case of the Williams family of interest, Edward (b. 1801) was the first in a continuous line of individuals with the last name Williams. He was called Williams because his father was William Edwards. You could think of the original use of Williams as a sort of possessive form of William, meaning "son, daughter, or spouse of William"--almost like our modern surnames but limited to a single generation.
Extrapolating this same idea to the name William Edwards, we can infer that the name of William's father was also Edward.
Edward and Margaret Williams modernized and passed on their last name to their children rather than Edward's first name. If Edward and Margaret had carried the Welsh tradition one generation further, their children's--and perhaps the whole line's!--last name would have been Edwards instead of Williams.
Coming soon...
Good to know, right? For more details about Edward, Margaret, and their descendants, stay tuned for the release of two volumes of family history:
- Bruce and Peggy from Prattville (about Bruce, Sr. and Peggy Williams and family) by Bruce Williams, Jr.
- The Williams Family (about Edward and Margaret, the first of the Williams line, and their descendants) by Bruce Williams, III
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