We've all been asked at one time or another what kind of a Lebanese name Toney is, right? Well, my dad (Robert Nathan Toney) sometimes would say out of frustration that our last name is really George, or at least that's what his father (Nathan Amos Toney) would tell him. So how did it become Toney? Well, as the great article written by Amy Rowe shows (a link to the article is on the documents page above) many Lebanese (or Syrian, really Arabic) names were changed out of confusion when our ancestors emigrated to the United States. But the names weren't changed at Ellis Island or some other port of entry (though that did happen) more often they were changed by accident later when applying for identification, answering questions for census workers, or on medical records.
As we all know, it is our tradition to name our sons by giving them their fathers name as their middle name (thus I am Joshua Robert Toney son of Robert and my father is Robert Nathan Toney son of Nathan, etc.). Since our ancestors did not speak much English when they arrived they would often be cut off when giving their full name and the record keeper would just write down the first two names. This is likely what happened to our patriarch Amos Toney. On the form above, you can see that he has given his name as Amos Tony George and listed his father as Tony. This is the earliest record I can find of Amos Toney. On later records he is listed as arriving in the United States in 1904 and the record above is from 1909, just five years later! On all other forms he is listed as Amos Tony or Amos Toney. Is this the right Amos Toney? Well, a few other pieces of information on this form match our Amos Toney such as the birth date and the father-in-law. What is confusing is that we know our Great-grandmother is Emma Solomon but on this record it lists his wife as Annie. Everything else is correct though such as Amos's mother and Annie's father Assif Solomon. It may be that Amos married Annie briefly or for some technical reason such as citizenship however the birth date for Annie does not match the birth date for the Annie that our family has records for. One other interesting fact on this record is that both Amos and Annie list mothers with the same last names. Were their mothers sisters thus making them first cousins? It's certainly possible, that's what happened with Nathan and Deanna, and it is and was quite common among Syrians and Lebanese.
So, from this 1909 record we have some answers regarding the origin or our last name but we now have many more questions about marriages and birth dates. I have found many other odd facts and it would not be surprising at all to find out that Amos either married twice or had two wives. There is also the possibility that the Annie he married died and her name was used on a future daughter of Assif. Stranger things are present in all these records. I'll try to sort it out in a future post. Until then, any tidbits you can recall from family stories can only help us.
