Today is Henry Harrison Dean's birthday. He is 215 years old, born in 1793. Henry Harrison was born in Patrick Virginia, the first Henry Harrison, son of William Henry Harrison Dean, who had come from England. He is Daddy/Grandpa's great-great-grandfather.It has been generally concluded that Wm Henry Harrison was a man from Dean, England, which he always wrote next to his name thus:William Henry Harrison, Dean, England.His sons may have followed the same practice. This garnered them the new last name of Dean. Both boys and grandsons of the first - Wm H. H. Dean - in our line have the middle name of Harrison, which is unusual unless, this is what happened and they were preserving the original name of Harrison, which migrated to being their middle names. I can't help wondering what all transpired for this to come about, how many times they were called by the 'wrong' name -Dean- before they finally gave in.Did the younger boys argue with their fathers to aquiesce to the new name? It is likely public records stated the surname as Dean, for one thing and it may have been an argument that they just didn't win. There has been a lot of searching done for the original Dean, England and William Henry Harrison. As far as I know, nothing has shown up. So we are Deans. It's a good name.
1 comment:
I must comment. I too remember the story of Dean, England but it came when I was older. The story I remember daddy telling me was that grandpa Harrison emigrated from Denmark to England. In England he was known as "the old Dane ". This eventually became Dean. So it was Henry Harrison, the old Dane which eventually evolved to Henry Harrison Dean. Maybe abit of a stretch? But that's what my daddy told me! Written by Marie
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