The Origin of Our Name

In 1922 when my grandfather John was born, his mother Charlotte was not married. At his birth, she listed him as having the last name Philipps, though he wouldn't know that until 1950. 

In June 1925, Charlotte was living with her mother Margaret, her two brothers and Grandpa Jack, though he was listed as John King. He's also listed as son of Margaret, which was obviously not true since she was 68 year old at the time.

King Family, 1925 New York state census

By January 1926, Charlotte had married Lester Rothrock. They moved to New Jersey and later Charlotte gave birth to two more sons, William "Bill" and Richard "Rich". Charlotte and Lester presented Jack as their mutual son and he used the name Rothrock. Later when the truth came out, Charlotte would tell Grandpa Jack that she selected the last name for his birth certificate because it was a common last name in the neighborhood she lived in when she got pregnant. She told him she chose it because she wanted to deflect from the fact that his father had been a married man. She used his real first name Gilbert, but chose a last name she was familiar with. 

Our last name is Philipps, which is an unusual spelling variant. I have always assumed Charlotte had guessed at how to spell the more common Phillips and simply made a mistake. But today when I was looking over old NYC records because of the new free digital index that went live this week, I noticed this in the 1915 state census.

King & Philipps Families, 1915 New York state census

The King family lived next to a Philipps family - matriarch Sarah Philipps with two sons, potential suitors for Charlotte (who was actually 20 at the time of the census)! The spelling of our last name was no doubt an intentional nod to this family. The irony is that 66 years after this census, Charlotte's second great granddaughter via Jack would be born as Sarah Philipps. Kismet, perhaps?

Charlotte Helena Mary King Rothrock, 1915 @ Coney Island