Week 3 - Unusual Name: "Zilpha"

It's Week 3 of the #52Ancestors challenge with the theme of "Unusual Name." 

This week's selected ancestor is my Great-Grandmother Zilpha Alice McCollum Elkin (1860 - 1927).

I'm one of those family researchers that not only catalog direct relatives but the siblings, their relatives, ancestors and descendants so my tree begins to look like the street map books of Northern Virginia. I'm mentioning this as it looks as if my Zilpha may have been named for her father, Adam McCollum's sister, Azilpha McCullom. Azilpha's name was also recorded as Zephyr, Zelpha, and Azelphia in other documents.

The name "Zilpha" is found in the Christian Bible, in the verses in Genesis; she was a hand-maid of Leah, one of the wives of Jacob, and mother of Gad and Asher. The name was popular in the 18th and 19th Century.

I wonder if my GG Zilpha was ever frustrated by her name? In doing family research I've found 13 variations of "Zilpha" in all sorts of records. I've begun to wonder if clerks (and this was a male-dominated position in the 19th century) ever asked a woman the correct spelling of her name? It doesn't seem to be the case from the evidence I've found though. And it's not only her first name that isn't consistent, either.  

An early record, the United States 1870 Census [1] surprisingly lists her name correctly - Zilpha McCollum, when she was 10 years old. My thinking is that the enumeration done in Hoosier Prairie Township, Clay County, Illinois was conducted in this small farming area where most people knew each other and names were recorded correctly.

A couple of examples of creative record-keeping:

Her marriage record in 1879 lists her as "Zelpha A Macallone."[2]  Recording what was heard perhaps?

There's also some variations on "McCollum" over the years, sometimes it's recorded as "McCullum", "McCullem", or even "McCullen."

She's Zilpah Alice Elbin (sic) in the "United States Census, 1920."[3] 

Here then is a spelling variation on her first name, too - Zilpha is now ZILPAH. Also in this particular record, the indexer can't distinguish between a "k" and a "b", reading "Elkin" as "Elbin."  

Elkin was also hard, too, as most people kept wanting to add an "s", making it "Elkins." One of her grandsons, David, (son of Charles Bryan Elkin) gave up on the additional "S" battle and just went with "Elkins" in all his subsequent records.

Somewhere along the way, it seems like her children gave up on using "Zilpha" and just listed her as "Alice" when they recorded legal documents, probably hoping that this would be the simplest solution for all involved.

A piece of advice from all this:  confirm the spelling of your name on documents. Don't make it harder for family researchers of the future. 


[1] "United States Census, 1870," database with images, FamilySearch 
(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M64J-TN9 : 12 April 2016), Zilpha Mccollum in household of Adam Mccollum, Illinois, United States; citing p. 22, family 149, NARA microfilm publication M593 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 545,695.

[2] "Illinois, County Marriages, 1810-1940," database, FamilySearch  
(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:X2GR-H5H : 4 November 2017), Isaac H Elkin and Zelpha A Mccallone, 1879; citing Clay, Illinois, United States, county offices, Illinois; FHL microfilm 1,008,795.

[3] "United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch 
(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MK5M-5MZ : accessed 22 January 2019), Zilpah Alice Elbin in household of Isaac Hodson Elbin, Indianapolis Ward 15, Marion, Indiana, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 262, sheet 3A, family 40, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 369; FHL microfilm 1,374,382.