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Re: What is the meaning and origin
What is your ethnic background? Where was your grandmother born? Where were her parents from? Was your grandmother Enorval Burns who was born in Missouri around 1903? If so, she is one of only TWO people listed with the first name Enorval in all of the millions of records found on AncestryLibrary.com -- and the other one is of a man where the census taker's handwriting is so bad that the name may very well really be something else. When a name is this rare, I'm afraid it will be very difficult to track down how your great-grandparents came up with it. It seems probable to me that they created it themselves.

This message was edited 8/9/2008, 4:40 PM

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Thanks Cleveland.
I am African American. My grandfather grew up and married my grandmother in Missouri.
I saw an Enorval Burns on Ancestry.com when trying to start a family tree. I asked my great-aunt what my Grandmother's maiden name was and she told me it wasn't Burns she was also born in the twenties or thirties. But she did live in Missouri.
Maybe she was named after this person.
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If your grandmother was born later than April of 1930, there would be nothing about her in Ancestry.com. But I do think it is highly likely that your great-grandparents had at least heard of Enorval Burns, and that's where they got your grandmother's name. :)
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Thanks for all the great information Cleveland!
Do you know of a way that I could find out who Enorval Burns was? For example can I find out if she was a land owner was she African American?
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