When Nancy Porter was born about 1842, in Kanawha, West Virginia, United States, her father, Andrew Porter, was 48 and her mother, Mary Foster, was 39. She died on 10 October 1860, in Cabin Creek, Kanawha, West Virginia, United States, at the age of 19.
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U.S. acquires vast tracts of Mexican territory in wake of Mexican War including California and New Mexico.
English and Scottish: occupational name for the gatekeeper of a walled town or city, or the doorkeeper of a great house, castle, or monastery, from Middle English and Older Scots porter(e), port(o)ur ‘doorkeeper, gatekeeper’ (Anglo-Norman French port(i)er, portur, Latin portarius). The office often came with accommodation, lands, and other privileges for the bearer, and in some cases was hereditary, especially in the case of a royal castle. The name has been established in Ireland since the 13th century. In North America, this surname has absorbed cognates and equivalents in other languages, for example German Pförtner (see Fortner ) and Poertner .
English: occupational name for a man who carried loads for a living, especially one who used his own muscle power rather than a beast of burden or a wheeled vehicle. This sense is from Middle English port(o)ur, porter ‘porter, carrier of burdens’ (Anglo-Norman French portur, porteo(u)r).
Dutch: variant, mostly Americanized, of Poorter, status name for a freeman (burgher) of a town, Middle Dutch portere, modern Dutch poorter. Compare De Porter .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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