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Archiver > LOWER-DELMARVA-ROOTS > 2004-09 > 1094420745


From: "Kay Grogg" <>
Subject: Re: [LDR] Dames Qtr., Somerset Co., MD
Date: Sun, 5 Sep 2004 17:45:45 -0400
References: <2b.60b88a23.2e6c8de2@cs.com> <002201c49374$c4cd6120$39148441@compaq>


An interesting side bar to your contribution about pirates: my "Uncle
Willie" William J.T. Kelly, left MD in 1890 and moved to Ocracoke Island,
NC. The family that he married into owned the land where Black Beard the
Pirate was supposed to have buried his treasure. Black Beard was long gone
by this time but the connection between Somerset Co. pirate activity and the
NC pirates sure makes for some interesting family folklore.
Thanks,
Kay
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Crouch" <>
To: <>
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 2:18 PM
Subject: Re: [LDR] Dames Qtr., Somerset Co., MD


> Add to the mosquito population 2-3 varieties of biting flies, and the
> infamous "noseeums"..(nearly invisible gnats whose bites itch for a week
or
> two), and the environment of the area could certainly generate such names.
> However, it is rumored that there is a relationship between the names and
> the activities of pirates who found those areas convenient for hiding out.
> To this day there is still a tradition in those areas of burying valuables
> in coffee cans in the back yard...
>
> Jim Crouch
> Somerset Co., MD
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 11:42 AM
> Subject: Re: [LDR] Kelly, Giles, White- Dames Qtr., Somerset Co., MD
>
>
> > In a message dated 9/5/2004 9:21:56 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>
> > writes:
> > > I have been told that the word Dames in Dames Quarter was originally
Dam
> > > as in beaver dam and was changed to sound better.
> >
> > This is all very entertaining to watch, but "Dames Quarter" is just a
> > late-era prudish cleanup of the original name of the peninsula known
from
> earliest
> > settlement as the Damned Quarter, doubtless a commentary on its happy
> mosquito
> > population. One sees it spelled in colonial records in other ways:
Damm,
> Dam,
> > etc. No family with any name like this was out there.
> >
> > Likewise, the adjoining "Deal Island" was originally Devil's Island.
I've
> > heard from Deal family genealogists who've imagined it must have
something
> to do
> > with them, but it doesn't.
> >
> > John Lyon
> >
> >
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> >
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>
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