Rare Surnames in my Family Tree

I often begin genealogy presentations by telling audiences that I cry myself to sleep every night because of the surnames in my family tree:

Jones,  Smith, Brown, Davis, Miller, and Johnson!

That usually gets a good laugh.

These 6 surnames are all top 10 in America today.((Thoughtco.com.))

Two other surnames are in the top 50:

King

Green

Four more in the top 100:

Cox

Brooks

Wood

Price

Matthews, Mason, Holmes, and Chapman are in the top 200.

So those are the common ones.  But in truth, I am fortunate to have a number of surnames that are rare.

Lukemire

Blalock

Corken

Tabele

Lippincott

Vermilyea

Aaberge

One of  my favorite surnames is Vermilyea.

It was my maternal grandmother’s maiden name — Helen King Vermilyea (Mrs. Helen Bonn upon marriage).  Such a great lady: lively and sociable, musical, deeply moral, and one of the best conversationalists ever.

My Vermilyea branch is rooted in Minnesota.  The progenitor was Avery Vermilya (1820-1904), my 3GG.  Avery was born in upstate New York, but moved his family west when he was 42 to take advantage of the 1862 Homestead Law.((See previous post HERE.))

The Vermilyea surname is rare.  I did a little digging and came up with these miniscule U.S. totals, which include two other spelling variations —Vermilya and Vermilye:

  • 1950  =  742((1950 U.S. census, default search for surnames Vermilyea, Vermilya, and Vermilye.))
  • 2010  =  1,511((namecensus.com, default search for surnames Vermilyea, Vermilya, and Vermilye.))

The name is so rare that I can confidently proclaim: anyone with the Vermilyea surname in the United States, including the two spelling variations, is a cousin of some sort.

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