The Quest for a Lost Race

by Thomas Edward Pickett

6. Lucy Ann Duke born Washington, Ky., January 11, 1814; died Rock Island, Ill.; married, January 20, 1835, Charles Buford.

7. Charlotte Jane Duke, born Washington, Ky., January 20, 1817; died February, 1886; married, January 14, 1840, Harrison Taylor, "War" Speaker of the House of Representatives. (Kentucky.)

The Dukes of South Mason are descended from Alexander Duke of Maryland, a tall, vigorous specimen of the Anglo-Norman breed who lived to be nearly one hundred years of age. His son, Dr. Basil Duke, was a brigade surgeon in the Confederate service.

Durrell, from Durell. Armorially identified with Darrell, Durrant, Durran, Durrock, and possibly Durrett. (Vide Durrett.) Note how slight a change converts the Norman name Clarte into Claret. So, Druett into Durrett.

Durrett. A surname traceable beyond the Conquest, and having all the marks of a Norman surname. If not of literal record in our various lists, it is evidence of defect in the list itself. It is a familiar tradition in Colonel Paul Durrett's family that the original form of the surname was Duret, and that the family was of French extraction. Widely separated branches of the same stock have the same tradition. Every village in Normandy—says Camden—has "surnamed" a family in England. It is easy to perceive, therefore, that the number of surnames thus derived, added to the number derived from other sources, would oblige the compilers of genealogical dictionaries from sheer exhaustion to omit many names. There is a simple process of linguistic mutation which explains the genesis of many words. It is known as transposition. It may be a transposition of letters, as in the simple name Crisp, transpose the terminal letters and we have the familiar name Crips; or it may be a transposition of syllables, of which we have a famous example in Al-macks, decelticized for Anglican uses by a simple transposition of the syllables in the Celtic surname—Mack-All. So, Durand, Durant (vide Battle Abbey Roll and D. B.), DeRuelle, Durelle, Druell, Durell, Durel, Durell (Huguenot, London, 1697), Durrell; so, too, Drouet (Nor. Fr.), Druet, Druett, Durrett. Duré is a French surname easily Normanized by the addition of the diminutive suffix et or ett, giving us Duré, Duret, or Durett; and when consonantally braced (more Anglico) by doubling the "r," we have Durrett—a familiar surname in Kentucky. Dur, the adjective, means hard, durable, enduring; the noun Dur is door; ett is a Norman suffix; giving the ancient surname Durrett a characteristic Norman stamp, structure, and cachet.

Dye, for Deye.

Dyer.

Eames. Ames.

Edmonds, or Edmunds.