Usticke Family Blog

Before my father passed away, he spent the last few years of his life researching our family history. I recently loaded his genealogy data into the family tree site itsourtree.com and have been expanding it with other branches of our family.

Looking at my father’s research, it raises some interesting questions about the Usticke name (pronounced you-stick).

Why is my name Usticke? Well, that’s easy. It’s because that’s my father’s name: Gordon William Usticke.

Why is my father’s name Usticke? His father was an Englishman named Gordon Wright Nowell-Usticke. What happened to Nowell? To quote my father, “In the USA, I have used Usticke rather than Nowell-Usticke as we don’t go in for hyphenated names.”

So, let’s go back a bit further.

Me: Alexander Earl Usticke (1970 – )
My parents: Gordon William Usticke (1935 – 2003) & Phyllis Ann Libman (1935 – )
His parents: Gordon Wright Nowell-Usticke (1894 – 1978) & Eunice Gertrude Forsythe (1914 – 1983)
His parents: William Gordon Stapylton Nowell-Usticke (1866 – 1938) & Elizabeth Wright
His parents: Stephen Usticke Nowell-Usticke (circa 1818 – circa 1875) & Lucy Eliza Marianne Bree (? – 1921)
His parents: Theophilus Samuel Beauchant (1787 – circa 1849) & Georgiana Ann Usticke Allen (1791 – circa 1875)

Wait, what happened there?

Stephen Usticke Nowell-Usticke’s father was a Beauchant as was his grandfather (Theophile Beauchant) and great-grandfather (Samuel Beauchant). Why is my name Usticke and not Beauchant?

Why did Stephen Usticke Nowell-Usticke take his mother’s middle name, and where did Nowell come from?

Well, let’s look at his mother’s family.

Georgina Allen’s parents: George Allen (? – circa 1791) & Anne Usticke (circa 1763 – 1805)
Her parents: William Ustick (circa 1730 – ?) & Philippa Nowell

Stephen Usticke Nowell-Usticke was actually born Stephen Usticke Beauchant around 1818. His maternal grandmother, Anne Usticke, was the product of two English families: Nowell and Usticke (sometimes spelled Ustick and, going back to the 16th century and prior, spelled Ustwicke). Anne had six sisters but only two brothers, Stephen Usticke (circa 1752 – circa 1823) and Robert Michael Usticke (1771 – circa 1851). Apparently, neither brother had children.

William Ustick and Philippa Nowell’s youngest son, Robert Michael Usticke, used both his parent’s surnames; and, when he died childless in 1851, left the names and his armorial bearings (coat of arms) to his sister’s grandson (his grandnephew). So, Stephen Usticke Beauchant became Stephen Usticke Nowell-Usticke.

And here’s the evidence of that transaction from page 192 of the book Bulletins and Other State Intelligence for the Year 1852 by Francis Watts, published by Harrison and Sons, London, 1853.

The Nowell-Usticke coat of arms is noteworthy, because it includes three crests, which results from the combinations of three families: Nowell (left: arm grasping a sword between antlers), Usticke (center: red demi-eagle) and Beauchant (right: green martlet holding in its beak an acorn in front of rays of the sun).

So, why am I named Usticke? Because my great great grandfather inherited his name from his granduncle (my great great great great granduncle), and it’s come down father and son to me (minus a hyphenated Nowell).

Whew.

[Edited 8 Jun 2008 with corrections and clarifications.]

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.