This week's Surname Saturday post puts the spotlight on one of my paternal surnames: Eads. According to the House of Names website, "the surname Eads originally derived from the Old English word Eade which referred to abundant riches. However, another reference claims that the name was derived from the Middle English name Edwy and the Old English word Eadwig which are composed of the elements ead meaning prosperity and wig which meant war."
Ancestry.com says that the Eads family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland between 1840 and 1920, and that the most Eads families were found in the US in 1880. And in 1840 there were 16 Eads families living in Indiana, which was 20% of all the recorded Eads's in the US.
So far, I've traced my Eads family back to just my 4th great grandfather, William Eads. The earliest documentation for him is a record of his marriage to my 4th great grandmother, Margaret Weaver, in 1842. They were both living in Osage County, Missouri at that time. By 1850, according to the Census, they are living in Jefferson, Osage County, Missouri with three children: William Henry, Elbert, and Martha. On that Census, William's birthplace is listed as Tennessee. I have no trace of William after 1850, other than I know that his daughter, Louisa was born in October of 1852, so he was alive at least that year. His wife, Margaret remarried at some point, because she is living as Margaret Galien on the 1860 Census, along with her children Elbert, Martha, and Louisa.
William and Margaret's son, William Henry Eads was my 3rd great grandfather.
He was born on July 16, 1845 in Newton County, Missouri. He was a Civil War Veteran and a member of the G.A.R. He would marry Mary Jane Tipton in 1868. After Mary died in 1894, William remarried and eventually settled in Labette County, Kansas, where many of their descendants would live and die. William Henry Eads would also died in Labette County on June 19, 1923 at the age of 77.
