Alpha and Omega

Image from: https://picryl.com/media/design-drawing-for-stained-glass-window-with-alpha-omega

I found some interesting names recently while researching my husband’s family. Apparently it was a thing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name twins Alpha and Omega. My husband’s grandmother’s extended family from Tennessee/Alabama has two sets! The first set is related to him by marriage. Alpha Wills was married to my husband’s 2nd cousin 3x removed, Terah Y. Stiles. Terah’s grandfather Franklin A. Martin, Jr. and my husband’s 3x great grandmother Missouri Frances (Martin) Mann were siblings. Alpha was born in Texas on December 24, 1895 and died September 25, 1993. Alpha’s twin sister Omega (of course also born on Christmas Eve 1895) died on February 1, 1981.

Alpha and Omega Wills in the 1900 U.S. Federal Census

The next set of twins is a “step” situation so the relationship is a bit convoluted, but hopefully I have it figured out. Missouri’s son Alexander Mann was married first (in 1911, separated in 1912) to a woman named Nancy Alice Reynolds who had previously been married (in 1895) to a William Lewis. They’d had 6 children including twin daughters born in 1907 named Alpha and Omega Lewis.

Alpha and Omega Lewis in the 1920 U.S. Federal Census after their mother had married a third time.