So I'm at the temple yesterday doing sealings of family names I've found and this card comes up. Before he says anything, the sealer looks at the card for about 4 seconds, looks at me with a question in his eyes and I can just tell he's thinking, "What's up with this guy's name?!?" Then he finally asks, "What is that? A nickname or something? Wahgoosh??" I just smile at him and say, "I have no idea. I just found his name on Family Search and he needs some temple work done."
Today I decide to do some searching to see if I can find any explanation for this strange name. I run across his marriage certificate and it says he married a woman by the name of Na she wa quay. I'm thinking, "What? Did he have 2 wives?" You'll notice on the temple card it says his wife is Angeline Brunette.
So I go to Family Search and look what I found! Check out the names with the yellow arrows next to them! Wild! On the Minnesota 1875 census, in the column for race it has a W for Samuel John "Wagoosh" Fox which means he was white. But his wife and 3 kids have an H in the race column. Not sure what that stands for but if you look at the yellow arrows in the lower right corner you see it says "Ojibwe woman". I googled that. It's the Chippewa Tribe! So my 2nd great grandfather's brother married a Native American woman. Pretty cool!
My best guess is that when Samuel married into the tribe, they gave him the native name of Wahgoosh. And his wife had an English name, Angeline, as well as her native name, Na she wa quay. Her father was a white man it looks like and her mother was a Chippewa or Ojibwe. I wonder what Wahgoosh means.
Wagoosh in the Ojibwe language means "fox".
ReplyDeleteHi Cousin! My great-great grandfather is Jesse Williams Fox Sr. as well. thanks for the wonderful work. Fascinating. I am working on David Williams Fox and Caroline Lisk and their family. They suffered greatly during the Nauvoo era. I am trying to get their children "in order".
ReplyDeleteHi, I am also related to the David Williams Fox & Caroline Lisk line. When you look at Samuel John Wahgoosh Fox and Angeline Burnette, the information you have in the photo above is gone! The crazy names and such. I wonder why??
ReplyDeleteHi there, I believe we are related Samuel John wahgoosh is my great great-grandfather, just discovered it today on my heritage, you see my dad was never honest with me about his parents when I was a young adult my aunt tried to tell me the truth but everybody was stopping her truth is my father was born James Moore but his father was a man named Edward blue Edward Blues adopted father was George Fox George Fox's father was Samuel John Fox, George is half Native American he married Maggie blue who was Native American Eddie's sister was Ida Blue Fox had a little brother Stephen Fox but he died and he kept the last name blue and that's all I know I'm trying to find out more as we speak
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