Duchess of Downtown Tacoma

While following my Patriarchal line, I noticed that my last name evolved over time - the last change I can't yet find but I found some hints. As I explained in my last blog seemed that around 1100 AD we may have been named after a river. Or the river may have been named after us. All I know is that we were both there with the name Jossa around that time. I can't trace the name beyond that point. They were obviously wealthy because they built castles and had "von" in front of the name which indicated Lordship.  I read also that German last names can mean their original occupation but it can also indicate the place where they are from. Several times while reading about the von Jossa's, they also called them "von Jasza" and this confused me.  I also learned that they used to name rivers after their Gods. Was the Jossa river named after an old Pagan God? Probably not. I see no evidence of this. Then I ran across a old map of Europe that had a place named Jas

  Mercy Brown's story is the legendary inspiration for Bram Stroker, HG Lovecraft and many other authors. It's surmised that she is the mother of the entire vampire genre in fact. Was she a vampire? Probably not. But I'm also related to a lot of extraordinary women with supposed supernatural abilities so that must be taken into consideration.  A quick google search will give you lots of information about what happened to Mercy Brown in New England in 1892. Here is a 6 minute video overview if you don't have time to go down a rabbit hole right now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTvYlWJPWtw Vampire legend Mercy Brown is my 13th cousin twice removed. Angela Jossy  → Carl Jossy your father → Inez Isadora Imus his mother → Jiles Herbert Imus her father → Hiram M. Imus his father → Charles Lemuel Imus his father → Lucy Imus his mother → Ann Buck her mother → Abigail Gould her mother → Thomas Disbrow her father → Margaret Walton his mother → Elizabeth Lynne Cromwell her moth