Lantern family of Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and The Cherokee Tribe
I am descended from Lavinia Lantern and Henry David York. Both were born in the late 1700's in South and North Carolina. They lived in Georgia on their way to Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties in Florida, and finally in Conecuh County of Alabama. Henry David & Lavinia (Lantern) had several children; I am descended from their daughter Lucinda York and her husband Jacob Smith of Conecuh County Alabama. Lavinia & Theophilus are probably buried in either Escambia or Conecuh Counties of Alabama.
Lavinia Lantern's father was Theophilus Lantern. His wife was Lucinda Stovall. Some of their children had classical Greek names (ie. Theophilus "meaning: Lover of God" was the Greek name given in the greeting at the start of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts in the New Testament of the Bible). Some children were given Hebrew names (ie. Levi - as in the Old Testament tribe of Israel). There must have been some level of education and/or prosperity, which would give exposure to the Greek names they gave their children. Also, there was possibly some familiarity with the Christian Scriptures (common for some in the Cherokee tribe from mid 1600's to the 1700's).
The Lantern name was common among the Cherokee planters of Georgia before the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The family is listed as White at times, and after 1830 (M) for Mulatto at other times. The whites who lived in the South East often designated Native and White "mixed blood" persons as Mulatto rather than White -as they did not believe these persons (regardless of their level of prosperity) equal with Whites at this time (after Indian Removal and Land Confiscation by the White government).
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