When Thomas Cumming was born on 3 April 1832, in Pictou, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada, his father, John Cumming, was 28 and his mother, Jane Fraser, was 26. He married Christena Fraser on 12 May 1853, in New Glasgow, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada. They were the parents of at least 6 sons and 4 daughters. He lived in Albion Mines, Pictou, Nova Scotia, British Colonial America in 1871 and McLellans Mountain, Pictou, Nova Scotia, British Colonial America in 1881. He died on 20 May 1903, in Pictou, Nova Scotia, British Colonial America, at the age of 71, and was buried in Riverton, Pictou, Nova Scotia, British Colonial America.
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1832–1903 Male
1829–1917 Female
1854–1941 Female
1856–1908 Male
1858–1943 Female
1860–1877 Male
1863– Male
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1804–1873 Male
1806–1866 Female
1832–1903 Male
1839–1914 Male
1842–1903 Male
1843–1898 Female
Scottish (of Norman origin): most probably a habitational name from Bosc-Benard-Commin in Eure, France. This place lies on the edge of the Forêt de Rouvray, near Rouen, in the heart of the district from which came numerous Domesday barons, and so is much more likely to be the source of the name than Comines in Nord. The name is also possibly derived from the personal name Cumin, which is found in Norfolk, Lincolnshire, and Yorkshire in the 12th and 13th centuries and may be of Breton origin, according to Reaney. Compare Old Breton Cunmin, which also appears as Cumin, and is from con- ‘hound’ with an uncertain second element, perhaps the min ‘edge’ which is found in other personal names.
Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Mac Cuimín (or Ó Cuimín) ‘son (or ‘descendant’) of Cuimín’, a personal name formed from a diminutive of cam ‘crooked’. There was a 7th-century abbot of Iona named Cumin. In Scotland, this Irish surname became confused with the Norman name.
History: A notable bearer of the Norman surname is Wilhelmus Comyn, Bishop of Durham, who came north to Scotland with King David I in 1124 and was appointed Chancellor of Scotland. He established his nephew Richard in Tynedale and Roxburghshire, and Richard also rose to be Chancellor of Scotland. The Comyn or Cumming family gained the earldoms of Buchan and Menteith and rose to be the most powerful noble family in Scotland in the century before the rise of King Robert Bruce.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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