Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 215, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1917 — NICKNAMES WERE LEGALIZED [ARTICLE]

NICKNAMES WERE LEGALIZED

Titles Spread Upon Official Records, According to Early Archives of Several States. Nicknames are not likely to get out of fashion so long as human nature remains what it Is. In these days, however, It is not customary to spread such titles upon official records, as was formerly the habit, according to the archives of several of our states. In the Dutch records of 1644 we have John Pietersen, alias Friend John. In the Newton purchase from the Indians, dated in 1656, one of the boundaries is “by a Dutchman’s land called Hans the Boore,” and In the Bushwick patent, dated October 12. 1667, one of the boundaries is “John the Swede’s meadow.” In 1695, In the Kings county records, a mdn is named living at Gowanus as “Tunis the Fisher.” The common council of New York in 1691 ordered fish to be brought into the dock “over against the city hall or the house that Long .Mary formerly lived in,” and In the same year an order was passed “that Topknot Betty and her children be provided for as objects of charity.” The explanation of this custom In many cases was that the persons in question either had no family names or* had forgotten them, says a New York exchange, so that the use of their generally accepted nicknames Lecame a necessity. X