Let’s be honest — researching family history sometimes feels like trying to chase a greased pig at a county fair. And nothing proves that better than the Deweese family name.
You see, somewhere back in colonial Pennsylvania, my Deweese ancestors decided life wasn’t hard enough already. They added an extra challenge: a last name that can be spelled more ways than you can shake a stick at.
According to official records (and a few unofficial ones scribbled on the back of very old marriage licenses), you might find our family under:
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Deweese
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DeWeese
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De Weese
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DeWees
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Dewees
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Dewese
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Dewesee
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And if you squint hard enough at 1800s handwriting, even Dewis or De Wes.
Honestly, at this point, I’m just waiting to find a "De-Wheeze" in a Revolutionary War pension file.
Despite the spelling adventures, it all ties back to my great-great-great-grandmother, Catherine Deweese Jones. Catherine was born around 1820 in Pennsylvania, the daughter of Joseph Deweese and Elizabeth Shaffer. She later married James Jones II, and after his death, she had a son, George Washington Jones — my direct ancestor.
George W. Jones carried the Jones name forward, but the Deweese blood (and apparently the creative spelling gene) lived on. From Germantown, Pennsylvania, to Indiana farmhouses, to Michigan towns, the Deweese spirit — or should I say "DeWeesey essence" — stuck with us through every census taker who shrugged and just spelled it however they felt like that day.
So next time you can’t find your ancestors in a search because their name looks different, just remember: If it kind of looks like Deweese, sounds like Deweese, and resists every effort to spell it the same way twice, much like Deweese--it’s probably Deweese.
And if you’re related to me, it definitely is.
