I am in the 9th generation of TALADA's, starting with Solomon the 1st as generation One.
(We have no records, so far, for Solomon #1's father and ancestors..Solomon #1 is where the trail stops,
for now.) (which actually supports the theory that he was born in Holland..if he had American ancestors we might expect to find additional data on Solomon's parents and ancestors..but considering the trail goes cold with Solomon the 1st, that suggests (but does not prove) that he was likely born in Holland.)

So I am the 9th generation, there are now also quite a few 10th generation Talada descendants running around! born in the early 21st century..My sister Kelly's daughter, and my cousins Jennifer and Beth's children, are all 10th generation Talada descendants..plus cousin Nathan's son, and the many Grandchildren of my Uncle Ronnie and Aunt Donna..and there are many more...(there might even be some 11th generation children by now!)

Many of us do not carry on the surname TALADA..because we are descendants of the many daughters of Lewis and Minnie, therefore we all have different surnames..(my immediate Talada line seems to be remarkably maternally focused,  the decendants of daughters and daughters and daughters of the TALADA's..interesting..although there are also a few male TALADA's and TALLADAY's, descended from Lewis & Minnie, continuing on the family name.)

Details for the Nine generations are listed above, in the section for the Family Group Sheets..so I wont repeat everything here..instead I will talk about the reasons why I believe it was William TALADA (Generation 3) my
Great X4 Grandfather, who was most likely the person who changed the spelling from TALLADAY to TALADA.

I have many pieces of evidence and sources to back up this conclusion..starting with the most current,
and working backwards:

1. I know my Grandmother Josephine and her siblings, the eleven children of Lewis & Minnie (generation 7) all used
    the spelling TALADA (at birth) . Which means their father, Lewis TALADA, used the spelling TALADA.
    (this is a known fact,from the past 100 years of family history.)  [1] [3] [102] [118] [201] [202]
    (however Lewis & Minnie's gravestone is markedTALLADAY..which was probably Minnie's doing. but Lewis was a TALADA.)

2. Going up one generation, (Gen 6) I know for a fact that not only Lewis used the spelling TALADA, but so
    did his siblings..Gravestones for Lewis' brothers Ted and Lawrence, are clearly marked TALADA.
     

3. This suggests their father, Augustus Arlington TALADA, must have used that spelling as
     well.. and sure enough, Augustus' gravestone also proves this:
     So thats up to Generation 5 using TALADA..We can go up yet another level:

4. Augustus Arlington TALADA's parents, Auguston Solomon TALADA and Clarinda MOREY, are buried in Union  
   Cemetery in Mehoopany, PA.  On April 1, 2010, cousin Jennifer went and photographed the gravestones of our
   Great Great Great Grandparents, which proves Augustus Solomon also used the spelling TALADA.
   So Thats Generation 4 using TALADA.    

(For large photos, dont forget to click on the "expand" icon: in the upper-right corner of the photo)
                   
 
For awhile, I thought that was where the name change occured, with Auguston Solomon TALADA. Which would mean only the descendants of Auguston Solomon TALADA would be using the surname TALADA, while presumably all his siblings, and his father, William, would be using TALLADAY. I have since discovered this is not true, and the name change probably goes up yet another generational level!

5. I now believe that it was William TALADA, born in 1806, Husband of Polly NORTHRUP, who was the person who 
    changed his own family surname from TALLADAY to TALADA...because there is strong evidence that three of
    William & Polly's children all used the spelling Talada, which would suggest they all recieved that spelling from
    their father.

    We already confirmed, above, that one of William's children, Augustus Solomon TALADA, (my ancestor)
    was using this spelling, because that spelling can be seen today on his own headstone in Mehoopany, PA!
    but we also have evidence for two more of William and Polly's children:

6. We have pension records for another of William's children:

    Abbie TALADA
    b. 31 Mar 1835, Towanda PA
    d. 18 Dec 1920, Athens PA

    Three different records, [172] [174] [266], indicate Abbie used the spelling TALADA.
    Abbie was married twice, first to Sanford JONES, then to Samuel RUGGLES. [172] [174] [266]

   All three sources show Abbie using the spelling TALADA.
   so thats two of William's children using TALADA.

7. We also have a third!
    there are living descendants, today, of Casper TALADA, in South Waverly PA.
    They use the spelling TALADA today, and are descendants of Casper TALADA I (the first..there is also a
    Casper TALADA II )

So thats THREE children of William TALADA and Polly NORTHRUP, all confirmed using the spelling TALADA.
Which strongly suggests it was their father, William, who most likely changed the spelling from TALLADAY
to TALADA.

I do admit however it does not absolutely prove it!
there is yet one more bit of important data to be discovered:

I plan to go and search for William and Polly's gravestones in Towanda..
I have read that the Cemetery is a bit of a mess, when it comes to finding historic gravestones..
The flood of '71 did some damage, moved stones around, and apparently there has been vandalism as well,
so im not sure the stones actually still exist..but if they do, im going to look for them, and see what the stones actually have to say about how William spelled his name..

stay tuned for that! :)

Update - May 26, 2010.

man oh man..just when I thought I was getting a handle on the whole TALLADAY-TALADA spelling mystery,
another monkey wrench gets thrown into the works!

While googling about for Talada information, I came across the obituary of my Grand Uncle, Lewis Jr.
Lewis Jr. was always known as "Junior" ("Junior" was what everyone called him) He is one of the eleven children of Lewis & Minnie..He is my Grandmother Josephine's brother, my mother's uncle.

Based on what I wrote above, Ten of the Eleven children of Lewis & Minnie should be using the spelling TALADA.
Only one of the siblings, Gerald ("Jerry") changed his own surname to TALLADAY.

So we would suspect that Lewis Jr. should also be a TALADA right?
not so fast! ;)
Turns out "Junior" has given us a THIRD spelling variant to work with!

Here is the link to Junior's obituary:

Obituary of Lewis Taladay Jr. [277]
b.  21 June 1923 - Athens PA
d.  19 April 2004 - Lincoln, NE

It would appear that Junior, and his children (my 2nd cousins) are all using the spelling TALADAY!
with only one "L"!
where did that one come from??

So now it appears we have three different spellings in the immediate family tree..
just from the Lewis & Minnie level and down! fairly recent (mid-20th century) family history.
We originally had TALLADAY,
Then someone (likely William) changed it to TALADA.
Which would have made all my most recent ancestors and relatives all TALADA's..
except for my Great Uncle Jerry, who changed it *back* to TALLADAY..
and now we have a new TALADAY spelling in the mix!
Apparently TWO brothers, Jerry and "Junior", decided to change their last names spelling,
for reasons which are still unclear to me.

Jerry switched from Talada to Talladay, (with two L's)
and Junior switched from Talada to Taladay, (with only one L)

I assume Jerry and Junior were probably young adults when they decided to change their last name's spelling.
Probably before they had children..which would make it around the 1940's or 50's..what was going on back then?

(There is certaintly nothing wrong with it! anyone has the right to spell their name however they wish!
I just find it all quite fascinating! why did they do it? what was the reasoning behind it? and it has a direct impact on the heritage of several of my cousins, (Jerry and Junior's children) who's own last names now reflect these changes, changes which are now being passed on to their children..I find it a very interesting bit of family history..)

So now I have yet another spelling mystery to investigate!
I plan to ask my cousins, Jerry and Junior's children, if they know anything about all this..
why their father's changed the spellings..
stay tuned! 

Update - June 1, 2010.

A new theory on the spelling change from TALLADAY to TALADA has emerged!
As I wrote above, I suspect it was likely our ancestor William TALADA who was the first to use TALADA.
giving that spelling to all of his descendants. (until another change in the mid-20th century by brothers Jerry and "Junior", as discussed above.)

If William was in fact the one who first made the change from TALLADAY to TALADA, as I suspect he was, it would have been sometime in the 1820's or 1830's timeframe when he made that change..

I wrote to Mary Jo Gigliotti, who is another cousin of ours on the Talada line..Mary Jo has been researching her Talada roots for some time, and she shared an interesting anecdote with me:

"I've met Talada's from Bradford County who told me their mother told them that they were NOT related to the Taladays who also lived in the county, but I have found the genealogy records that prove that they are.  I heard that there was a family feud and some members of the family just changed the spelling.  It also didn't help that most of them up to the 20th century couldn't write their name and signed with an x.  That leaves the census takers free rein on spelling it any way they please. I haven't found definitely where the family came from.  The only place that I have seen Holland is in Arletta's obit. I had been leaning towards England/Wales but have never found any proof."

thanks Mary Jo!

So perhaps a family feud in the early 1800's is responsible for the spelling change? could be!
Perhaps William, for some unknown reason, became SO estranged with other family members that he actually changed his family name! as a way to disassociate himself and his children from those relatives..

And the "legend" then got passed down to succeding generations, that "We TALADA's are not related to "those" TALLADAYS!" ;) im sure some people actually believed it was true..and perhaps still do to this day! almost 200 years later..but I strongly suspect that ALL Talada's, Taladay's, Talladay's, etc, descended from Bradford County, PA TALLADAY stock, are in fact all related! regardless of spelling differences..

This "family feud" theory makes much sense..and is quite plausable..
unfortunately actually proving it will be quite difficult, if not impossible..the only hope is that perhaps some writings will someday be found, where some distant ancestor or relative of ours actually wrote down something about this potential feud..otherwise all the stories and "skeletons in the closet" have already been taken to the grave..long ago..

also the "census taker" theory also has possibilities..(more on that below)

Update - June 7, 2010.

I wrote to my three cousins, the children of Jerry TALLADAY, asking if they had any ideas about why their father changed his spelling from TALADA back to the original TALLADAY..they arent sure, but will try to check into it..
but Robin gave me another story she had heard, about why the spelling was changed to TALADA back in the 1800's..
A family story she was told says that there became so many Talladay's, all clustered in a small area, that the mail would get all confused between the different families, so one family (presumably William in the 1820's or 30's) changed his own name to TALADA just to ease some confusion! thanks Robin!

So that gives us three possible theories for the original spelling change from TALLADAY to TALADA, probably by our ancestor William in the 1820's or 1830's:

1. The "family feud" theory..one branch of the Talliday's got angry with the rest of the family, for reasons currently unknown, and changed the name to disassociate themselves from the rest..then a legend began, and was passed down through the generations, that "The Talada's (of Bradford county) are not related to the Talladay's (also of Bradford county!) but it seems highly likely that they are all related in reality.

2. The "census taker" theory..perhaps the late 18th and early 19th Century Tallidays were not all literate, and some couldn't even spell their own names..when census takers came along, they would simply write down what sounded "close enough" to them..then, perhaps later some of these familys adopted whatever spelling the census takers gave them, because they didnt really know what was supposed to be "correct" anyway! and this resulted in possibly many different spelling variations..

To me, this is quite plausible! its hard for us to imagine today that anyone wouldn't know how to spell their own last name! but times were different then..we could be descended from some simple, uneducated folk..who might not have had access to the kinds of education systems we all enjoy today. In modern American society, illiteracy is virtually unheard of, but in the 1770's through 1840's, when these spelling variation might have been "created", it was probably much more common..this could account for some of the many different spelling variations!

3. The "Too many Talliday's" theory. Perhaps there were SO many Talliday familys all clustered in one small area (probably Bradford county, around Towanda) that one family (William?) chose to deliberately change the spelling to TALADA simply to give his family some distinction from the others. perhaps mail always got confused and mis-delivered, so a spelling change was a practical way to deal with the "Too many Talliday's" problem...maybe!

Update - April 6, 2011.

A big surprise, it's Lodeska TALADA! not Lodeska TALLADAY!

I did a cemetery tour of Tioga Point Cemetery, Athens, PA with my Mom, Aunt, and several cousins,
on July 20, 2010..photos can be seen on the Cemetery page. (thanks everyone! it was a lot of fun..
we will do another one soon!)

This tour discovered the headstone of my (31) Great Great Grandmother Lodeska HEEMAN TALADA,
Minnie's mother. I had assumed, when I began this webpage, that Minnie was born a TALLADAY, probably
descended from TALLADAY's further up the tree that never changed the name to TALADA. If this theory was
true, then Minnie's parents, James and Lodeska, should have logically also been TALLADAY's, and I fully expected Lodeska's grave stone to say TALLADAY..but this is not the case!
Lodeska is a TALADA! This was most unexpected!

This must mean that Minnie was born a TALADA afterall! and not a TALLADAY..
then how did her name change to TALLADAY? and why? Minnie's name suddenly got a lot more mysterious!
And there is further evidence that Minnie was definately born a TALADA..not only does her Mother's headstone say TALADA, but so do the stones of ALL FIVE of Minnie's brothers! Frank, Fred, Mack, Howard and Percy.
(see the cemetery page for the photos) So there can be no doubt. Lodeska was a TALADA, all five of Minnie's
brothers were TALADA's..Minnie herself had to have been born a TALADA.

At first, I only knew of one son who changed the spelling of his last name, Jerry, (the youngest of Lewis & Minnie's eleven children), who changed his spelling from TALADA to TALLADAY.

Then I discovered, thanks to an on-line obituary, [277] that another son, Lewis Junior, also changed his spelling!
From TALADA to TALADAY, with only one "L"

Then! The Tioga Point Cemetery tour of July 2010 discovered that a THIRD brother also changed his spelling!
Leo! changed his spelling from TALADA to TALADAY, the same spelling as his brother Junior.

These are the three youngest brothers in the family (apart from Gilbert, who died as an infant, at the age of only four months, and so never had the opportunity to contemplate the spelling of his name) and it seems likely the fact that they were the three youngest was probably a factor in them being the *only* three who changed their spelling:

Leo TALADA (changed his name to) Leo TALADAY
Lewis "Junior" TALADA (changed his name to) Lewis "Junior" TALADAY
Gerald "Jerry" TALADA (changed his name to) Gerald "Jerry" TALLADAY

Here are all of Lewis & Minnie's children again, (rather than make you scroll back up! ;)

Lewis Henry TALADA (my Great Grandfather) b. 31 Aug 1885, Mehoopany, PA d. 1946, in an auto accident. Son of Augustus Arlington TALADA and Alice Victoria MILLER. Lewis married Minnie TALLADAY (my Great Grandmother) b. 17 Jun 1893 d. 29 July 1961 both are buried at Tioga Point Cemetery, Athens, PA. Children of Lewis Henry TALADA and Minnie TALLADAY: Glenn TALADA b. 19 July 1909 d. 22 July 1962 Married Doris STROPE Josephine Marie TALADA (my Grandmother) b. 19 Feb 1911 d. 13 Feb 1967 Married Edwin KREMER (Edwin "Polly" KREMER and Josephine are my mothers parents, my Grandparents) Both are buried at Tioga Point Cemetery, Athens, PA Dorothy TALADA b. 2 Mar 1913 d. married (unknown first name) SHERBO (1st husband) married Bill SWARTWOOD (2nd husband) Blanche TALADA b. 1916 d. 1933 Married (unknown first name) NORTHRUP Blanche died at the young age of 17, during childbirth. she (and her brother Gilbert) are buried alongside their parents at Tioga Point Cemetery, Athens, PA. Luella TALADA b. 5 July 1917 d. 1989 married Frank STRANGER (2 children) married James "Jimmy" CROSSETT (5 Children) married Carl CURTIS (no children) Leo TALADAY b. 22 Nov 1919 d. 1976 married Julia Jane (unknown maiden name) (Leo was born a TALADA, and later changed his name to TALADAY) Lewis "Junior" TALADAY b. 21 June 1923 d. 19 April 2004 married Kathleen (unknown maiden name) (Junior was born a TALADA, and later changed his name to TALADAY) Shirley TALADA b. 31 March 1925 d. 6 March 2012 married Walter MOORE Virginia "Jenny" TALADA b. 6 Sep 1925 d. married Jesse ROBINSON Gilbert M. TALADA b. Aug 1930 d. Nov 1930 Gerald "Jerry" TALLADAY b. 21 July 1934 d. 27 Apr 1994 married Shirley NICHOLS (Jerry was born a TALADA, and later changed his name to TALLADAY) Of the Eleven Children of Lewis & Minnie, Nine have children, Grandchildren, and probably Great Grandchildren by now. All these descendants of Lewis & Minnie are my very large extended TALADA family of Athens & Sayre PA, and surrounding areas. Aunt Shirley passed away on March 6, 2012. She was the last living child of Lewis & Minnie. Of the eleven siblings, the first, Glenn, was born in 1909. Shirley passed away in 2012, making 103 total years that children of Lewis & Minnie were on this earth.

It is known that all the daughters of Lewis & Minnie remained TALADA's their whole lives, until their last names changed when they got married. None of the daughters, as far as I know, ever considered changing their names.
My Grandmother Josephine was always a TALADA, as was Aunt Shirley, and I believe all the other sisters.

I believe that Glenn, being the first-born child, also remained a TALADA his whole life. (I need to find Glenn's headstone to confirm..if anyone knows where Glenn is buried, please let me know! Some email correspondance with my cousins says Glenn is likely buried in or near Troy, PA.)

Glenn has one son, Gary TALADA, who still lives in Sayre, and since Gary's last name is TALADA, that confirms that the oldest sibling Glenn didnt change his spelling.

So..it is assumed the three youngest sons, Leo, Junior and Jerry, likely changed their spelling as young adults, probably before they had children, and so passed on that spelling to their children, grandchildren, and descendants living today. They probably made the spelling change sometime in the 1940's or 1950's, when they were about in their 20's in age, more or less.. their oldest sibling, Glenn, being a full 25 years older than his youngest brother Jerry, apparently wasnt interested in the "spelling change fervour" of his three younger brothers, and kept his spelling TALADA.

We know WHO changed the spelling of their name..and approximately when..what remains completely
unknown is exactly WHY!  We still only have speculation and guess work..

Here are all the known TALADA-TALLADAY spelling changers:

Originally the spelling was TALLADAY, this is clear, going back to Solomon TALLADAY the 1st, our oldest
known direct male ancestor on the Talada-Talladay line.

1. William TALLADAY changed his name to William TALADA, the origin of our TALADA spelling in the family
   tree today. He changed his spelling to TALADA probably in the 1820's or 1830's. This is mostly confirmed, based
   on Williams's children. This info, and speculation as to the reasons why he changed his name, can be read above.

So after this, we have all the original TALLADAY's, who never changed their spelling, plus one new branch of TALADA's (from which I, and all my Talada-Talladay cousins today, are descended..We are the descendants of William)Then nothing much changed for 100 years until:

2. Minnie TALADA, daughter of James and Lodeska TALADA, married Lewis TALADA, in the first decade of the
    20th century. Minnie then (exactly when is unknown) changed her name to TALLADAY. Which is the origin of
    the current TALLADAY and TALADAY spellings among my current cousins.