• 34%, Yes, a town or a section of a town was named after one of my ancestors or relatives.
• 31%, Yes, a landmark or geographical feature was named after one of my ancestors or relatives.
• 51%, Yes, a road was named after one of my ancestors or relatives.
• 21%, Yes, a building was named after one of my ancestors or relatives.
• 18%, No, I don’t think any towns, landmarks, roads, or buildings were named after any of my ancestors or relatives.
• 9%, I’m not sure.

Readers Respond

Lorna Rainey, Long Island, New York: My great-grandfather Jospeh Hayne Rainey was born enslaved on a rice plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina, yet rose up to become the nation’s first Black Congressman thirty-eight years later. He took his seat on December 12, 1870, and was reelected four more times. Congressman Rainey was the longest-serving African American congressman until the 1950s. In 2021, the brand-new main U.S. Post Office in Georgetown was named for him. In 2022, Room H–150 in the Capitol Building was renamed the Joseph H. Rainey Room.

Pamela Morin Rawson, Scarborough, Maine: My great-grandfather Joseph Napert emigrated from southern Quebec to Berlin, New Hampshire, in the late 1880s. Joseph and my great-grandmother Lea Therrien built a house and raised their ten children there. As the children grew to adulthood, Joseph built each one a house nearby. The area is now known as Napert Village and includes a Napert Street. My father grew up in a house next door to his grandparents and around the corner from uncles, aunts, and cousins.

Martha Cross Seymour, Dalton, Massachusetts: My 8th great-grandfather was Rev. John Russell of Hadley, Massachusetts. He gave safe haven to two regicides—William Goffe and his father-in-law, Edward Whalley—in his home for several years. Route 9 in Hadley is Russell Street; Goffe and Whalley Streets run perpendicular. I often wonder when I see the signs if the residents are aware of the history.

Neysa Garret, Orinda, California: In 1812, my ancestor Obadiah Conover left Monmouth County, New Jersey, in a covered wagon and settled in Dayton, Ohio. Obadiah opened a blacksmith shop at the corner of Third and Main Streets. There is now a building at that corner called the Conover Building.

Cynthia Nielsen, Isanti, Minnesota: In 1902, my ancestor Oliver Ulshafer left Indiana with his wife, Nellie, and their two children to homestead in Williams County, North Dakota. Nellie was pregnant with my grandmother Iva, who was born in Towner County, about 230 miles from their destination. In 1908, Oliver became the first settler to receive a homestead patent in in the area and Oliver Township was named after him.

Beverly Hector-Smith, Natick, Massachusetts: My 2nd great-grandfather Charles Henry Tyler was born in Boston in 1845. He fought in the Civil War. After the war he settled in a newly formed section of Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Because Charles Henry Tyler was the first to live on the street, it was named Tyler Street for him. He died in Boston in 1910.

Bill Hallett, Kingston, New Hampshire: In 1668, British military captain John Manning acquired an island in what is now New York’s East River from the Dutch. Between 1676 and 1685, Manning conveyed the island to his stepdaughter Mary, the wife of Robert Blackwell—my ancestor. Blackwell’s Island was used for farming by the family until 1825, when New York City purchased the island. The island then housed prisons, asylums, and other institutions related to “undesirables.” In 1973, the island was renamed, and today Roosevelt Island is accessible by train and home to 12,000 residents.