Strong from Canada through NY to MI
My second great grandfather is Julius Strong, located in the 1880 census in Saginaw Co., MI.For years I could not locate him in any earlier census records.Finally I resorted to searching on given names, looking for a pattern of names in the same family.I found the family in 1870 in Calhoun Co., MI under the surname Defort, and in 1860 in Essex Co, NY with surname Dufort.For many reasons, I am 100 percent certain this is the same family.The name change puzzled me until I realized that they were French Canadians and that in French "du forte" means "the strong."If you are having trouble finding a French Canadian Strong, consider the possibility that they anglicized the name at some point from a French name such as Dufort.The same could, of course, apply to any name from any non-English-speaking background.