Martin Tichenor: Our Founding Father

The Titchenal name actually has it roots in the old English name Tichenor. About 1779 Moses Tichenor moved from New Jersey to northwestern Virginia and started spelling his name Tichenal on various legal documents instead of Tichenor.

While this might seem usually now, in the 18th century most persons were illiterate and scribes commonly recorded deeds and other legal documents based on the way a person pronounced their name. It wasn't unusual for names to be spelled differently on the same document. Something, individuals changed their names to avoid debts and to make it more difficult to trace them. We will never know the reason why Moses started changing the way his name was spelled, but for what ever reason it stuck.

In fact Moses wasn't the only Tichenor to change his name. There are other common variations of Tichenor. For more on Tichenor name variations see surnames section which contains a Cross Reference of common variations of the Tichenor surname. Also check out the maiden names section that lists surnames that married Tichenors/Titchenals.