When Martin Godfrey was born about 1836, in Lewis, West Virginia, United States, his father, Robert M. Godfrey, was 34 and his mother, Susannah Ann Smith, was 29. He lived in Lewis, Virginia, United States in 1850.
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Being a monumental event in the Texas Revolution, The Battle of the Alamo was a thirteen-day battle at the Alamo Mission near San Antonio. In the early morning of the final battle, the Mexican Army advanced on the Alamo. Quickly being overrun, the Texian Soldiers quickly withdrew inside the building. The battle has often been overshadowed by events from the Mexican–American War, But the Alamo gradually became known as a national battle site and later named an official Texas State Shrine.
In 1844 when Robert Lumpkin bought land in Virginia, this would be the spot of the Infamous Slave Jail (or Lumpkin’s Jail). The slaves would be brought here during the slave trade until they were sold. Lumpkin had purchased the land for his own slave business.
The first federal law that defined what was citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law. Its main objective was to protect the civil rights of persons of African descent.
English (of Norman origin): from the Norman personal name Godefrei, Godefroi(s), composed of the ancient Germanic elements god, got ‘god’ + frid(u), fred ‘peace’. See also Jeffrey .
Irish: shortened and Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Gothraidh or Ó Gothraidh, ‘descendant of Gothfrith’, an Old Norse personal name often Anglicized as Godfrey. Compare McGorry , McCaffrey .
History: An Irish family of the name Godfrey originated in Romney, Kent. The first of them to settle in Ireland was Colonel John Godfrey, who was rewarded with lands in Kerry for his services in the 1641 rebellion. Godefroy, Lord of Normanville, from Normandy, was married in Trois-Rivières, QC, in 1636. He was captured by the Iroquois in 1652. His brother, Lord of Linctot, from Rouen, was also married in 1636 in Trois-Rivières, and lived from 1629 to 1632 among the Hurons. Another Godefroy, from Paris, was a trader and interpreter from 1623.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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