Is there a town, township, city or state named after your family?

While 'Chidester' isn't among the most unusual family names (my wife's maiden name is 'Yike') -- there are actually five places in America named 'Chidester' or 'Chichester':

Chidester AK
Chichester NY
Chichester NH
Upper Chichester Township PA
Lower Chichester Township PA

And the origin of the family name:
Chichester England

The only one of these I've been to is Chichester NH which I visited after the 1998 Providence Reunion.

Chidester AK is named after a John Chidester who operated stage coach lines from there to Prescott AZ. His family home is now a museum.

Among the other variations of the name:
Chedester, Chedister, Chidister, Chitester, Chittester

We've always pronounced the name CHID-es-ter (rhymes with bid). The town in NH is pronounced CHI-chess-ter (rhymes with eye).

A family genealogy was written in the late 50's by Clarence Anderson and his wife (a Chidester) of Utah, who traced their lineage to an immigrant from England who entered the colonies around 1610.

I did some informal research into the family heritage about 15 years ago (using family oral history) and traced my ancestory to a John Chidester who lived in Rose Township NY about 1815.

Now tell us about your family name and locations sharing your family name. If you've never looked into this, try entering the family name in Mapquest.com or use the US Census Gazatteer

Another online source is the USGS Place Names Search

I searched, found no communities with our name. However, there is a stream in AK & Ma, a spring in a bridge in CA, an airport in OH, a historic post office in WV, a school in IL, a "populated place" in TN, and a "locale" in SD. Guess I just don't have as famous a lineage as John . . . .

Best I've got is an airport the Pagels Field Airport in Minnesota, Pagel-Madden Dam also in MN, and a cemetary in Fayette, TX.

There are a few Abbott's:
Abbott, Arkansas
Abbott, California
Abbott, Iowa
Abbott, Mississippi
Abbott, New Mexico
Abbott, Pennsylvania
Abbott, Virginia
Abbott, West Virginia
Abbott, Texas (Home of Willie Nelson)
Abbott, Nebraska
Abbott, Argentia
Abbotts, Australia
Abbotts, New York


Not much under Joyce's maiden name - Tolan (original spelling was Toland)

Toland, Pennsylvania
Toland, Texas

The Abbott ancestry has been traced back to William Abbott, 1855, at Withcall, Lincolnshire, England.

I did a mapquest of several of my family names and came up with lots of places, although I doubt most of them are related to my family except:

The Altstaetter Cemetery on Altstaetter Road in Monroe Township, Ohio.

There was a Vance's Mill in Southwestern Pennsylvania that was named after one of my family lines. I have no idea whether it still exists.

I don't know of any others than that.

There is no place in mapquest for my last name "Innerst" but my maiden name is "Fulton" and there are Fultons all over the place, counties, cities, subdivision, etc. But no Innerst.

Eskilady

I actually found a Lefever Falls, NY!

Well LeFever is obviously French, changed at some point from LeFevre. My ex's ancestors settled in Pennsylvania. In 1855 a couple of brothers founded the LeFever Arms Company in Syracuse where they manufactured the LeFever Automatic Powderless Shotgun. In 1915 the company was acquired by the Ithaca (NY) Gun Company who continued to produce the shotgun for many years. The only time I ever saw one was on display during a tour of the company with my then husband many years ago.

My maiden name was Rock so there would be tons of places with that name included. My Dad was born in Austria, imigrating to the U.S. with his family when he was one year old in 1911. I have the shoes he was wearing on the trip over! Don't know any of his family's history but I had an Aunt and Uncle who went back to the old hometown once. They found a building with a plaque on it that said someone named Rock had been hanged for treason! I have a distant cousin on my Dad's mother's side who I correspond with at Christmas. That's about it.

"I am a rock, I am an island..." (Had an urge to do that.. :rolleyes: )

Though for safety reasons, I would rather not tell you my last name (not that I don't trust you all, but an "outsider" who stumbled upon this site could very easily look through the archives and find enough about me that they could track me down or something...besides, at one point or another, I think about 1/4 of you learned it anyway), I will tell you that there is a town in GA, Alberta, NC, and WI, a couple parks and cemetaries, schools, hospitals, a few casinos ( ), and airport, some bars, several auto related places, restaurants, and a theater. Whew!

I only knew of 3 LaPortes and I did a Mapquest search and found others. I stuck to cities, I'd have to assume that there would be other things in the vicinity of those cities (townships, boroughs, etc.), but I'm too lazy to look into it. :rolleyes:

Some spell the city Laporte and others LaPorte, but I'm giving credit for both.

The three I knew about were

Laporte, PA
La Porte, IN
La Porte, TX (ironically a suburb of Houston where I now live but where I am not a native)

The others are
Laporte, MN
Laporte, OH
Laporte, CO
Laporte, MI
LaPorte, CA
LaPorte City, IA

More than I ever thought there was!

No cities with my name but I'm not surprised. Danhauer has a German background.

It was spelled Dauenhauer when my Great-Great-Grandfather Joseph who was born in Downs, Germany brought his wife Sophia Reickert, from Reinberg, and their one year old son Jacob to America in 1831.

Jacob buried his parents in Ferdinand, Indiana. He lived in Troy, IN then moved to Owensboro, KY and ran a grocery store. Jacob married Mariah Spayd from Pennsylvania and had 5 kids. William, Jacob II, Josephine, Mary, and Andrew.

William, my Grandfather, born October 18th, 1871 in Troy, walked to Chicago and became a registered Pharmacist in 1891. Married Freda Schmitt from Louisville, KY in 1918 who raised 6 boys. James, Charles, Norbert, William II, Thomas, and Richard.

Thomas, my dad, born Feb 1929, married Margaret Rose O'Bryan and raised 8 kids, Linda, Martha, Alan, Anne, Bruce, ME , Mark, and Lee Martin.
I married Cynthia Elaine Fowler (who has a town named Fowler in 10 states when I checked) and we have 2 kids and now have 1 beautifull granddaughter named Kennedy Elaine.

So there you have the history of my name traced back to our German roots and told through the people that carried the name and not on some city limits sign. Cause there aren't any..

Does it have to be in the US?
My last name is VanBronkhorst, which is the Dutch version of the German "Von", or "royalty of", as in "Count Von Whatever.....".
There is actually a village in the Netherlands called "Bronkhorst", which is a historically designated site sort of like a much smaller (but also much older) Williamsburg.
Bronkhorst's most recent claim to fame, I guess, is that the chapel in the town (dating from 13-1400) was used as a set in the WWII movie "A Bridge Too Far".

Hood:
VA
WA
AL
CA
GA
LA
PA
TX
OR

HMS HOOD (Sunk by the Bismark)
John Bell Hood (Conf. General)
Fort Hood
Robin Hood
Hood County TX
Hood River OR
Little Red Riding
Boyz N The Hood
Da Hood
Raymond Hood (famous architect)
Hood-lum
Hoodwink

My particular line of "Hoods" came from Scotland with my father who was born in Glascow, and we are a part of the MacGregor Tartan. (How do ye roll yer "r's" in print??)