What’s in a name?

 

Bertha Mae’s letter requesting a name change, if needed.

While working on a history of the Fauquier County Tapscotts, I ran across Marion Douglas Tapscott,  a great granddaughter and also a great great granddaughter of Elizabeth Percifull, founder of the clan. Why two relationships? Because Marion’s parents, Walter Wallace and Bertha Mae, were both Tapscotts, a case of cousins marrying, or in this case first cousins twice removed marrying. Now this is not what intrigued me about Marion. It was her name. How in the world did she get what most would consider a male name? The answer is simple, and oh so lovely, at least most of it.

The Department of Health Response.

When Marion was born, in 1916, her mother, Bertha Mae, was, in her own words, “very ill.” The doctor in attendance at the birth, who helped Bertha through the difficult time, was Morton Douglas, a Fauquier Co physician. Since he was so much help, it was decided to name the new born girl “Marion Douglas” after the doctor’s wife. But the birth certificate was accidently submitted with the child’s original name, “Florence.”

Years later, in 1944, concerned that the birth certificate might have mistakenly given the name “Florence,” rather than the name “Marion,” which her daughter had used throughout her life, Bertha Mae wrote the Registrar of Vital Statistics, to change the name, if needed, to “Marion Douglas Tapscott.” The name “Florence” was struck out and the requested name inserted.

“Florence” struck out and “Marion Douglas” inserted.

But there is one more part of our tale, the unlovely part. Take a careful look at the registrar's signature on the Department of Health letter -- “W. A. Plecker.” That’s right, the rabid racist author of Virginia’s   “Racial Integrity Act of 1924.”