And to add further confusion, my grandfather was Peter Clark Lane, Jr., named for his grandfather Peter Clark Lane, not his father who was Theodore A. Lane. My parents had no idea who added the Junior or why. Grampy passed when I was eight months old so I obviously never had a chance to ask him.

Liz Petry, author of "Can Anything Beat White? A Black Family's Letters," published by the University Press of Mississippi, available at www.lizpetry.com