How can someone have their last name as the first name of their father?

maryrose50

Booker T Washington, he has his father's first name as his last name. The sisters have their father's last name. I would like to understand how this is.

JulianBrown38

@maryrose50 Can you provide the PID of the Booker T Washington you are referring to? Not surprisingly, there are many individuals with that name in the tree.

I did a search which turned up an odd case. It is Booker T Washington GQV6-HHP. His father is William Washington GQV6-BB2. Somewhat bizarrely, William has been given an alternate name of type Married Name with a first name of Washington and no last name (and a reason statement of "GEDCOM data" to boot)! That can cause some confusion.

Áine.ní.Donnghaile

And, if you are referring to the famous Booker T Washington, he adopted his surname from his stepfather, Washington Ferguson, according to various accounts. His mother was enslaved, and his father was not known.

LoveSunshine62

@maryrose50 Are you asking why Booker T Washington has the last name of Washington and his sisters have a different last name?

According to history, (as Aine said above), Booker chose the surname of Washington. That would be why his surname is different than his sisters.

There are many circumstances where slaves picked their own names when they were freed. Many times they are found in earlier Census records with one surname, and then changed it to another surname.

With Patronymics, you will see this happen as well.

Historically it happens & in any genealogical system, you can find children with different surnames than their father's. I have found this with Jewish research as well.