Forrest Family History: Last Name Origin & Meaning

Debby Ferguson
Member since 2008
8

This is the story of my journey into the Past.

Deborah Forrest Fraga Ferguson
This is the story of my journey into the Past. Born Deborah Forrest, Then through marriage #1, I became Deborah Fraga, 3 children where born of this union, Joseph Edward Fraga,Kimberly Elizabeth Fraga and Nelson Edward Fraga, Then through marriage #2- I am Deborah Ferguson,there were no children from this union} For many years I believed that my Great Grand Mother was a full blooded Lakota woman. I came to this believe from hearing stories and family members talking about her. My sister was once told that she was Just some woman from the Black Hills. My sister had told me that she had heard that our Grand Parents often went west to visit family. Although my mother never told me that her Grand Mother was Lakota ,She said That her Grand Mother was a Native women but never mentioned where she was from. My Grand mother Anna and my mother both did not have white skin ,this is one of the reasons I can't understand what I later discovered. I can remember my mom sending money to the Lakota people when I was a child. Perhaps that is what lead me to believe that My Great Grand Mother was Lakota. Now in my 54th year of life I have been drawn to search for the truth of my family roots. I embarked on a 12 hour a day search journey that lasted for several months. After reading and comparing hundreds of records and spending about $350.00 I found my Great Grand Mothers Records. Much to my surprise she was not Lakota . It was through my research that I discovered where the Lakota beliefs came from, It was my uncle Theodore ,who was my mothers half brother, his father was Lakota and he had gone west and married a Lakota woman. I kept the records on this. I already knew that my Great Grand father was born in Nova Scotia and his name was William A. Corbett. He married Margaret B. Oliver in Massachusetts in the year 1877. I have there marriage record. Margaret or as he called her Maggie had listed on her daughter Anna's birth record that she was born in Ireland, two weeks before Anna's birth she listed on a Massachusetts 1880 Census that she was born in Nova Scotia Canada,There are several records that list different places of birth on her. On her Marriage record she lists her place of birth as Scotland with parents listed as George and Isabella Oliver.There is a 1861Scotland Census record with these names on it. I do not know if this is correct. Part of the Oliver family is listed on the 1871 Mic-Mac Nova Scotia Indian Census records and there are other Oliver family members who are buried in the Indian Point Cemetery in Nova Scotia.The Oliver family name is also on the Massachusetts Nipmuc Indian record. On June 17,1880 William and Maggie where Blessed with the birth of my Grand Mother, Annie Elizabeth Corbett ,born June 17,1880 in Boston.The listing of Boston included all surrounding areas at that time. As Annie grew up she called herself Anna E. Corbett . She put herself through Nursing school and was a great herbal healer. I can remember her tending her herb gardens when I visited as a child. Anna,my Grandmother and Mary ,my mother both had slightly darker skin tones. In Sharon, Mass. In the year 1905 Anna E. Corbett married Whittemore Irving of N.B. Canada. Shortly after there marriage they changed my uncle Theodores {Anna's first child} last name form Corbett to Irving. My Grand Father was often called Thomas Whittemore Irving .Perhaps he did this because the children from his first marriage at this time were all adults that lived in Canada and he was starting a new family. His first wife was deceased as his marriage record to Anna states that he was a Widower. Whittemore's parents where John Irving of N.B. Canada and Margaret Burton of N.B. Canada. Margaret Burton was a Native Indian woman,she is listed on the student rolls of a Indian Reservation School in Canada. She must have been the Grandmother that my mother said was an Indian and we all thought she was talking about her mothers mother when it was her fathers mother. On the 17 Of October 1917 Anna and Whittemore Irving were blessed with the birth of Mary Emeline Irving, my mother. Mary also had slightly darker skin tones but was always listed as white. She to became a nurse. Mary married John Everett Forrest , my dad ABT.1936-7 in Rhode Island,U.S.A.this was her first marriage ,his second,he had no children from his first marriage. I was the youngest child of 5 , that were born of this union {MaryAnn, Sylvia, John Jr., Sandra,and {Me} Deborah}, John had another daughter, my half sister, named Joan Forrest. Joan was born from a unwed relationship with her mother.My father in his younger years had a very serious alcoholic drinking problem ,my older sisters have many of there own stories to tell ,I was fortunate enough to be born after he had stopped drinking ,so my experiences in growing up are quite different from theres. John Everett Forrest, my father, was born on Economy Mountain in Nova Scotia Canada in 1908/9. He was the youngest of 5 children and only son of Flora Hervey Drake of Sharon, Massachusetts and James Willis Forrest of Nova Scotis,Canada. John Came to the United States in 1912 with his parents after there house on Economy mountain was struck by lightening and burned to the ground. This is when they moved back to Massachusetts when again there house burned do to a stove fire .After this second fire in Stoughton the children were told their mother died of a Heart Attack and their father went out West ,this was not True.John { my dad } became a ward of the state and later went to live with his older sister Eva Trowbridge and her husband Chase in Stoughton Mass.,His parents moved to Indiana, they are listed on James WW1 service registration card Dated 12 Sept. 1918 in St.Joseph County.James Willis Forrest City: South Bend County: St Joseph
State: Indiana Birth Date: 6 Dec 1876 Race: White FHL Roll Number: 1653190 DraftBoard: 2. It also states that he worked for T.S. [ Top Secret] Electric company in Nitro, Kanawha County West Virginia.During World War I the government built an $80 million complex in Nitro to manufacture explosives and chemicals for the war effort.
Shortly after That Flora disappears from the records. There is a head stone in the Deborah Sampson Cemetary, on the corner of Mountain Rd,in Sharon Mass. that has Floras name on it.
James appears in West Virginia married to Mable.They are listed on the 1930 census last name missed spelled Farest should say Forrest.They are also mentioned in The Charleston Daily Mail News paper, West Virginia .as Mr and Mrs James W. Forrest.

My dad had a love for the Sea and wanted to enroll in the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.The Academy required that one be a citizen of the United States and he was not. Not knowing what to do because of the short time he had to summit his application he asked my grandmother , Anna E. Irving if she would help him out and she agreed to.They went to the town hall in Sharon Massachusetts were she swore that she was present at his birth in Sharon, Mass. On January 27,1909.They accepted her word and listed dads birth as being in Sharon, Mass., and gave him a copy of the record to summit with his school application. He was excepted into the Massachusetts Maritime Academy were he graduated as a Lutenent Commander First class . His journeys took him all over the World. I have many wonderful memories of times spent with my dad. I remember going with my mom to pick him up at the Quincy Ship Yard. He and I also had taken a complete tour of The Massachusetts Maritime Academy that he had attended.My Dad and I traveled to Nova Scotia ,three times where he showed me where be was born and I met many of my Nova Scotia relatives. He taught me how to survey land and we did a surveying job together.My Uncle Chase and Dad also taught me the ways of the forest and how to track animals.We also had a small farm in Sharon, Mass. And had many horses over the course on years.By the age of 16, I had won a wall full of trophies and ribbons from showing my horses. I took them and had them re-labeled to give to the children of My 4-H horse club at a horse show I put on for them. My Dad also worked for the Emerson and Cummings Company in Canton Mass..My sister Sandy and I would often go with him on his company security checks. Emerson and Cummings was a Government contracted Company that did TOP SEACRET government Space research. This was back in the nineteen sixties. My dad would explain to us about Lazar research, Space fabric, satellite parts and the research that his company was working on. He even brought home the mannequin that wore the space suits when they were testing Ruby Lazar guns . We named him Charley.There are so many stories perhaps some day I will get a chance to write about them. Next I began to research his parents. His mother, Flora Hervey Drake was a Direct decedent of William Drake Esquire, the brother of Sire Francis Drake, according to the records. Although my Dad always said he was a direct decedent of Sire Francis himself. My Dad gave me The Family Drake Bible Dated in the early Seventeen Hundreds , it was singed by Drake family members in there own blood. In the Nineteen Seventies I entrusted it into the care of The Kingdom Hall, a church in Stoughton Mass. For save keeping. Unfortunately when I asked for it's return they could not find it and no one knew what I was talking about,how sad. The Drake family sub-lines also married into the Wampanoag indian people. My Dad , through his Grand Mother Josephine Hervey Drake was a direct decedent of Francis Cook ,who is on the May Flower Passenger list. My Dads fathers name was James Willis Forrest, The name Forrest came to him through adoption by Ester Forrest, of Nova Scotia Canada, in 1882. Before this date all his records have the last name of his birth mother Emma Corbett ,{James Willis Corbett }James being the result of a unwed relationship, his birth record has no first name on it, Listed in the Nova Scotia search engine as ___ Corbet , the record says illegitimate Corbet, Born 5 Dec. 1876 {although James always put his birth date Dec. 6, 1876}, his father was listed as =Aldoris S. Indian of S_____? Mass. , mother = E. Corbet of Economy,Five Islands , Nova Scotia. [James married Flora H. Drake in 1899 in Sharon Mass.] James father was mistakenly listed as Aldoris Forrest on there marriage record. Perhaps the minister thought this looked better if the names matched. His real name was Aldoris Slade. The name Aldoris was missed spelled his real name was Eldoras Slade, B: Swanzey, In 1857 Record #105 188 Birth,Mass, vital records. Emma Corbett never married but Eldoras Slade did and had children.The Slade family of Fall River is on the Wampanoag Census records.This was no suprise to me, my dad had always told us his Grand-father was a Wampanoag Indian and in the course of my researching I came across a photo of Sarah Slade ,James looked just like her.
When I was young my parents told me they found out that they were related after comparing family Histories. I wanted to know how and started a search for this information.This is what I found, Emma Corbett ,James Willis Forrest birth mother { my Father's Grand- Mother} and William A. Corbett {My mother's Grand-Father}, were brother and sister, per Nova Scotia Census. through the Corbett line my parents were Second cousins. This is the story of my research up to today , 8 July 2008. I am still working on these records. {updated 25 August 2010 }

Deborah {Forrest} Fraga / Ferguson

Jul 08, 2008 · Reply

Debby Ferguson
Member since 2008
8

My journey into family Genealogy. I have be on many quest in my life but this quest to discover the truth about my family has been a long hard road for me.I have learned many things along the way .Much to my surprise the trip was much harder than I ever imagined . But armed with a passion for the truth I steadfastly continued and was able to prove what my family oral history had told me was correct. I also learned that the record keepers of many Government branches need to go back to school and learned how to correctly record information.Many seasoned genealogist warned me about this and I ,myself found it to be very true. Names spelled wrong, Dates recorded incorrectly,thing erased from original records,where you can see only part of what was there.And of course they all want money ,money ,money.Then there are the old Native records that only part if the original can be read and what is readable is guessed at by the people transcribing them. I have to wonder how any tribe could turn someone away when so many records that they have are incorrect or refashioned by the transcribers. Then I had to deal with the adoption of my grandfather,which is not relevant to my blood line but does explain were my maiden name came from. I quickly discovered not to look for Native names because they are 98% recorded as just plane old English or other nationalities . I also learned one should never judge anyones Native connection based on there name and that family oral tradition is far more accurate than Government records. My biggest regret is not asking my older relatives about these things when they were still here ,this is such an important thing to do and so often pushed aside thinking that one can address this at a future date and before you know it they have crossed over and there priceless knowledge is gone. So ,listen,record and stay connected to your elders right now ,don't put it off.And don't forget to share you life stories with you children , nieces ,nephews , and have them write them down for there children.I also put mine on the web so that any of my family that I may not know can have the knowledge. Surprisingly, I have heard from some one researching the same family. Finally,don't forget the sub lines of your family,so many people just research the family name line ,when so much more is revealed in the lines the wives families and ever generation going backwards in your chart has these lines.
Deborah [Corbett] Forrest [ Fraga ,Ferguson] April ,05,2008

Jul 08, 2008 · Reply

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