Margaret Smith

Brief Life History of Margaret

When Margaret Smith was born in October 1893, in California, United States, her father, George Palmer Smith, was 26 and her mother, Claudia Ann Robinson, was 29.

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Family Time Line

George Palmer Smith
1867–1948
Claudia Ann Robinson
1864–1903
Margaret Smith
1893–
Palmer Claude Smith
1894–1975
Albert Kerrins Smith
1903–1966

Sources (2)

  • Legacy NFS Source: Margaret Smith - Government record: birth-name: Margaret Smith
  • Margaret Wold in entry for Palmer C Smith, "United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011"

World Events (3)

1896 · Plessy vs. Ferguson

A landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of racial segregation laws for public facilities if the segregated facilities were equal in quality. It's widely regarded as one of the worst decisions in U.S. Supreme Court history.

1898 · War with the Spanish

After the explosion of the USS Maine in the Havana Harbor in Cuba, the United States engaged the Spanish in war. The war was fought on two fronts, one in Cuba, which helped gain their independence, and in the Philippines, which helped the US gain another territory for a time.

1906 · Great San Francisco Earthquake

A 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook San Francisco for approximately 60 seconds on April 18, 1906. A 1906 report by US Army Relief Operations recorded the death toll for San Francisco and surrounding areas at 664. Later reports record the number at over 3,000 deaths. An estimated 225,000 people were left homeless from the widespread destructuction as 80% of the city was destroyed.

Name Meaning

English and Scottish: occupational name denoting a worker in metal, especially iron, such as a blacksmith or farrier, from Middle English smith ‘smith’ (Old English smith, probably a derivative of smītan ‘to strike, hammer’). Early examples are also found in the Latin form Faber . Metal-working was one of the earliest occupations for which specialist skills were required, and its importance ensured that this term and its equivalents in other languages were the most widespread of all occupational surnames in Europe. Medieval smiths were important not only in making horseshoes, plowshares, and other domestic articles, but above all for their skill in forging swords, other weapons, and armor. This is also the most frequent of all surnames in the US. It is very common among African Americans and Native Americans (see also 5 below). This surname (in any of the two possible English senses; see also below) is also found in Haiti. See also Smither .

English: from Middle English smithe ‘smithy, forge’ (Old English smiththe). The surname may be topographic, for someone who lived in or by a blacksmith's shop, occupational, for someone who worked in one, or habitational, from a place so named, such as Smitha in King's Nympton (Devon). Compare Smithey .

Irish and Scottish: sometimes adopted for Gaelic Mac Gobhann, Irish Mac Gabhann ‘son of the smith’. See McGowan .

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

Possible Related Names

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