Note: the below table and information has NOT been updated since 2006.
At the 2005 reunion in St. Louis (Wentzville) Jeffrey Dolan Littrell [a grandson of Jessie Daniel Littrell] told of a family tradition that his father told him about. It concerned a practice of naming the first born son in a manner that resulted in the initials "JD." This was the first I heard of this, but looking at the limited information I brought to the reunion it became apparent that there was an interesting pattern in the naming practices that had heretofore escaped me.
Has anyone else heard of this practice????
(see note at bottom of page)
In the case of John Daniel Littrell's family the following pattern emerged:
| Jessie Daniel (oldest son of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children) | Jessie Dolan (oldest son of 8 children) | Jeffrey Dolan (oldest son of 5 children) | Jennica Devonne (oldest daughter) (other daughter also Jaemie Dannelle) | Jennica's first daughter named Jaclinn Diane (no sons) |
| Deanna J. (oldest daughter, second child of 5 children) | Jason Dolan (oldest son of 4 children) | |||
| Cheryl Marie (one of 5 children) | Jade Renae (oldest child of 3 children) | |||
| Gary Russell | Jesse Daniel (oldest son of 3 children) | |||
| Verily Viola "Sis" (oldest daughter of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children) | J. Fred (only/oldest son of 5 children) | Jeff (oldest of 2 sons) | Jared Aaron (oldest of 2 sons/children) | |
| Gregory Wade (one of 2 sons) | Jennie Ann (only child) | |||
| Mable Lurene | Tony Reed (only son of 2 children) | Justin Reed (only son of 2 children) | ||
| Bertha (daughter of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children) | Joyce Darlene (oldest daughter/child of 3 children) | |||
| Redford "Red" (son of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children) | Janet Pandora (youngest of 2 children) | |||
| JD (son of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children, the initials are believed to be for John Daniel Jr., even though JD adopted Junior Dolan) | Troy, Glenn & Richard | |||
| Leatha Mae (daughter of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children) | Billy Lee (oldest son of 4 children) | Wayne Lee (oldest of 2 sons) | Jessica Leigh (younger of 2 children) | |
| Jeffrey Scot (youngest of 2 sons) | ||||
| Jerry Gale (second son of 4 children) | ||||
| Joyce (3rd of 4 children) | Jamie Doran (oldest son of 2 children) | |||
| OJ(son of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children, his original name is unknown, OJ adopted Oliver James) | Sheila Diane (second of 5 children) | Joanna Christen (youngest of 2 daughters) | ||
| Wallace James (second son of 4 children) | Jamie (second son of 4 children) | |||
| Joshua Caleb (youngest of 4 children) | ||||
| Leslie "Les" (son of John Daniel & Kizzie, of 12 children) | John L. (only son/child) | Jenifer (first born) | ||
| John R. (only son) | ||||
| including John Daniel there are 3 JDs | 3 JDs | 3 JD | 3 JD | 1 JD |
Including Jesse's father John Daniel there are 13 JDs among his descendent, two of his sons (the first and fourth) are JDs. Of the remaining 10 JDs seven of them are descendants of Jesse, four are oldest sons and three are daughters in the absence of sons (2 of them are the first born). So if nothing else the tradition is evident in the descendants of John thru Jesse and two of his son's (out of six who had children).
Of the remaining 3 JDs one is an oldest child (daughter), one is the youngest child (daughter), and one is the oldest son.
The presence of the oldest child/son having the first initial of "J" is very common, but when taking the total number of first born the occurrence is not of a significant proportion. The presence of the "J" initial in John's siblings and uncles occur with the first born son in the case of his oldest brother, "James Carroll," and his uncle "James W". So what we do have is the oldest son of Eli is James W., the oldest son of Timmons (James W's brother) is John Carroll, the oldest son of his brother John Daniel is Jesse Daniel, his oldest son is Jessie Dolan, his oldest son is Jeffrey Dolan, his oldest child is Jennica Devonne, her oldest child is Jaclinn Diane. From Eli to Jaclinn there is at least one occurrence of an oldest child i each generation having the first initial of "J" for 7 generations!
NOTE: At the 2005 October Timmons Reunion (later that same year) I asked Jeffrey's Uncle Gary Littrell if he heard of this tradition and he had. After some discussion though we surmised that it wasn't a Littrell tradition but a Comer one carried on by Kizzie.
To wit:
Daniel Comer named his eldest son Jesse D. in 1816 (at least on of Jesse's daughters, Sarah Comer~Springer named her oldest son Jesse)
Jesse may have continued the tradition as his oldest son is John Comer, no knowledge of hi middle name.
Jesse's daughter Hannah Comer~Powell named her oldest son John Daniel Powell.
Jesse's second son, Daniel P. Comer, named his first son by his 1st wife John Comer, no knowledge of his middle name, and his second son by his second wife Jesse D. Comer
Daniel P. Comer's oldest daughter (our Kizzie) by his 2nd wife named her oldest son Jessie Daniel Littrell and her 5th son 'JD' (believed to be John Daniel, JR) and thus begins the chart above.
So there appears to be a Comer tradition, but like many family naming tradition the practice is not written in granite. Conflicts of two family traditions or other influences may forestall or modify the practice over time. Since we don't always know the complete name of our more distance Comer relatives we don't know how prevalent the practice was among other branches.